


Anachronism

by Shadowwithpants, tekina_fiction



Category: Assault - Fandom, Shadow the Hedgehog - Fandom, Sonic X, Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: 90s fashion sonic is life, Also worth Mentioning that this Shadow doesn't have amnesia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assault, Fashion Week, Gen, Greaser! Shadow, Gun Violence, Let that fringe horror set in folks~~, Other, Other questionable fashion choices, Sonadow (if you squint), Suggestive Themes, angry! Sonic is fun to write, don't worry this is all PG folks, prepare yourself for cheesy 50s lingo, sfw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 03:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14275548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowwithpants/pseuds/Shadowwithpants, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekina_fiction/pseuds/tekina_fiction
Summary: A Series of re-interpretations based on Shadow's major events in Canon, plus some original stories. He is a product of his era, embracing both the style and ideals of the 50's... A creature displaced in time.On Earth, the Mobian guests have also conceded to the norms of human society.(TL; DR:  This is one big character study that lets me indulge in snark and snappy fashion choices, loosely grounded in the Sonic X Universe with a blend of SA2. Hijinx ensue.)Greaser! Shadow, 90's Sonic and many more aesthetics to come.





	1. The Flood that sank the ARK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the End. 
> 
> CW: Blood, graphic injury, gun violence, Child death.

 

It was time for afternoon tea when the flood arrived to swallow the ARK.

 

 

Pin sharp ears had picked up on the gunshots from across the station before word had time to travel to the hedgehog and his human companion in the Sun Lounge.

 

The distant disturbance had stood out to only one of them in the peace and quiet. Shadow froze, a teacup halfway to his lips, as a young human girl demurely forked a piece of cake into her mouth.

 

The snack was cut short.

 

Shadow’s instincts slammed his cup down, shattering as his fingers wrapped around Maria’s slender wrist, her plate clattering to the carpet. He pulled her briskly across the room, his other fist pounding once against the door release pad.

 

“Shadow, what are you doing?” Maria said after a frightened gasp, worry lining her young brow.

 

“Something’s off, Sweetness.” He replied, trying to even out his voice as his ears twitched, straining to listen.

“But don’t you fret a bit, we’re going to be just fine.”

 

Shadow wished he felt as sure as he sounded, cautiously glancing out into the deserted corridor. Maria, to her credit, staved off her panic as she fixed her friend with a concerned stare.

 

“I don’t understand,” She said quietly, looking paler than usual. “How do you know that there’s anything wrong? The alarms would have been activated if-"

 

A haunting wail filled the hall and silenced the girl. Shadow quickly tugged a stumbling Maria down along it, that awful sound reverberating off the metal panels. The hedgehog grimaced, knowing his scant head start was already up. He glanced at Maria, who even at _this_ pace was beginning to tire: Pallid cheeks looked tacky with a fine sweat, and her breathing was ragged.

 

His stomach twisted to be so bluntly reminded of her fragility, so he pulled them into an alcove to rest.

 

“Goddamn it…” He hissed, teeth bared, as an eerie emergency light swallowed up all other colours, casting the pair, and everything around them, into black and red.

 

Maria swallowed visibly, her head turning towards the currently empty corridor as she caught her breath. “What do you think is happening, Shadow?” She quavered, voice almost lost in the din.

Shadow shook his head and stretched out his arms. She was taller than him, but definetely not unmanageable.

 

“I don’t know, Maria, but it’s not safe here. I can feel it.” He said, as he moved to scoop her up behind the knees. She let herself to fall into his hold, arms circling his neck as his other hand supported her back.

 

The girl remembered when they had done this exact thing in the ARK’s swimming pool. Maria would allow Shadow to tread with her to the admittedly meagre limit of his depth, her body lighter in the water, and scream with laughter when he ‘suddenly’ dropped her.

 

She doubted her weight made any difference to the robust hedgehog on dry land or otherwise, but the knot in her chest failed to unravel as he began to jog down the hall.

 

Shadow chewed his lip, unwilling to risk a breakneck speed with the delicate girl in his arms. He accelerated steadily, just enough to activate the jets in his soles, and slid into a smooth, steady skate to minimise the jostling.

 

“Where are we going?” She asked, golden hair whipping as they went. Shadow leaned and took a left at the corridor’s junction.

 

“We have to get to the escape bay.” He rumbled, diverting as he heard an imperceptible clatter of boots coming from the opposite corridor.

 

“But what about the others?” She cried, suddenly frantic. “And Grandfather? What if he’s in trouble or hurt-?”

 

“There’s no time for them!” Shadow snapped. After a silent moment, his next words carried an apologetic tone. “They can take care of themselves. I’m sorry, but you... Can’t.”

 

Maria’s lip trembled, her porcelain face cracked in heartbreak. Shadow looked away, jaw set as he listened to undoubtedly militant shouts headed their way.

 

“We have to get you somewhere safe.” He said to himself more than his companion.

“Off the ARK.”

 

_I was made so that you could live. Please let me carry out my purpose._

 

“...I’m not going alone.”

 

Maria was met with a sharp gaze, red as any rose from the gardening atrium. She held it, her voice firm.

 

“I’ll only go if you come with me. You’ve said it before, ‘We’re a package deal’.”

 

A weak smile curled her lip and Shadow’s nose stung a tad.

 

“Besides, we always wanted to visit Earth together someday.” She continued, her grip tight as Shadow drifted into another turn, away from voices even she began to hear now.

“It wouldn’t be any fun without you.”

 

“Yeah,” Shadow said, his voice somewhat thick. “Yeah, you’re right. It would suck eggs to go without each other.”

 

The Ultimate Lifeform was not prone to panic, nor any unwanted rises in ‘useless’ emotions: The Laboratory team had seen fit to try and engineer that out of him. But with the double timing foot falls coming from all the paths he could take, and the girl shaking in his arms (from cold or fear, he couldn’t tell), Shadow could feel metaphorical wires cross in his head and begin to short circuit his programming.

 

 _Christ in a Cadillac, they’re_ _everywhere_.

 

With a rumble of annoyance, Shadow growled around the heart in his mouth and shot down the quietest hallway.

 

“I need you to hang on tight, honey, and whatever you hear, don’t open your eyes.”

 

Maria looked startled, seeing her friend’s stormy face, but did as she was bid.

 

“OK, Shadow. I trust you.”

 

Feeling those thin arms tighten around him, Shadow sent more juice to his jets, Maria’s hair streaming beneath his chin like yellow rags as his charge buried her face in his shoulder.

 

The GUN soldiers didn’t know what hit them, literally. Their screams mercifully died in their throats as crackling arrows of energy passed through ballistic vests like butter.  Even without the help of an Emerald, Shadow managed to summon a field of shining spears, filling the air with the smell of Ozone. Maria held on for dear life as the hedgehog again loosed a hand long enough to cast another blinding volley into a squad rounding the corner.

 

The metallic bitterness of half-baked blood laid heavy on Shadow’s tongue as he panted, tearing past the falling bodies as fast as he could with his cargo.

 

While it was true he was _able_ to use the chaotic projectiles without a Chaos Emerald, the action was taxing and drained him more than he anticipated. There was no other option, however, as close range combat was out of the question.

 

A quiet sob broke against Shadow’s neck as they progressed, but Maria kept her promise and her face remained hidden. Feeling lower than dirt, Shadow instead tried to focus on his direction, eyes flicking from doors to signs that might steer them right.

 

With his pulse roaring in his ears, Shadow didn’t expect the troops that towered over them as he smashed the door release button to the west observation deck.

 

They turned in unison, the cold barrels of their Carbines aimed at the pair and ready to fire. Blue eyes rounded, sharp teeth flashed and hammers clicked back like a deadly chorus.

 

It was the work of a second and the thought of half of one as a snarling Shadow cast Maria away from him, shielded by the wall as he leapt through the door frame. The girl’s yelp was lost in thunderous gunfire that threatened to split her eardrums.

 

The bullets were fast, but Shadow was faster, evidenced by his strobing form in the flashes of light and screams that followed. Maria squinted, trying to rub the black smudges from her vision, when the Hedgehog skidded to her side and pulled her to her feet without his usual aplomb. She vaguely noticed her left slipper was missing, foot bare against the chilly floor, but it was nowhere in sight.

 

“Can you walk?” He grunted, taking her hand. The dazed girl nodded, stumbling along behind with Shadow’s oddly sluggish pace. The ringing in her ears started to subside as she tried not to look at the (hopefully unconscious) scattered bodies when they passed them, which meant she couldn’t help but notice her friend’s lopsided gait.

 

It was hard to see at first, drenched in the crimson light, but three holes punctured Shadow’s t-shirt at the waist, with two more in the thigh of his jeans. As they ambled along, dark blooms began to form around each one, spreading like ink on blotting paper. Maria shrieked, hand to her mouth as she watched the black flowers open ever further.

 

“Shadow, Y-You’ve been _shot_?!” Hysteria cuffed her words, but her friend merely cast her a bleary look. He chuckled, coughing at the tailend and staining his teeth. He swallowed the taste of iron before she could witness the horrorshow of his smile.

 

“No need to worry,” He croaked with forced ease.

“Just a little peppering… Nothing to get into a tizz over.”

 

Maria rushed to his side as he grunted, his bad leg buckling at the knee. She pulled him up, and he gave her a smirk, only for it to vanish when he saw her distraught face wet at the cheeks.

 

“H-Hey now… “ Shadow soothed, wiping away tears with the back of his thankfully clean hand. “What’s this, someone so pretty crying over such a little thing?”  

 

The girl couldn’t help but give a broken little laugh wrapped in a sob. The Hedgehog smiled more broadly, forcing himself to stand.

He tutted.

“Honestly, you know me better than that, Doll Face: I can walk off just about anything.” He scolded gently, taking a few steps to prove his point.

When his legs didn’t give again, Shadow nodded to Maria and winked, a little ‘told you so’.

 

“They don’t call me ‘Ultimate’ for nothing!” he boasted, both arms raised in a comical flex.

“I make Popeye look like a wet noodle.”

 

Maria, though still vexed, allowed herself to giggle wetly. She took the other’s hand when offered, falling into uneven step again.

 

Shadow’s show of  bravado wasn’t completely unfounded. He did heal at a remarkable speed, but it didn’t mean the metal pellets didn’t hurt like the Dickens as they began to push themselves back through his organs, walls of muscle and flesh at an agonizing rate.

 

Regardless of his pain, the hedgehog masked his limp and forced himself focus on something better.

 

So he chose his companion.

 

The harsh red light was dispersed a little by the windows in this area, and the first peak of the sun in its star studded sky cast an orange wash over Maria. It bathed her face in gold, turning her blue eyes a glassy green, lending a healthy glow that existed so rarely as her hair shone like spun platinum.

 

Religion was a difficult concept for Shadow to grasp, when he was so well versed in Science and the Logic of numbers. He was even brought unnaturally into this very World to save someone so pure from such an awful end. It all seemed terribly unfair and it didn’t make a lick of sense for him to try and believe in a higher power.

But when he watched his friend now, her face still bright and beautiful through her obvious exhaustion, Shadow figured that even if the rest was baloney, Angels might just exist.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, the pair managed to reach the end of the observation deck and stepped through the pneumatic doors of the escape bay. The alarms had ceased a few minutes ago which left the area eerily quiet.

 

“Maybe everyone else got out?” Maria offered hopefully. Shadow gave a positive hum, but didn’t dare draw her attention to the untouched capsules that lined the bay. He pointed to an isolated chamber, where the multiple passenger pods resided and watched as Maria accessed the control console. Satisfied that she couldn’t see him, his back hit the wall.

 

Everything was held together with pure will, and the Hedgehog’s vision began to tilt as he leant heavily against the welded titanium sheeting. While it was possible to regenerate from the ARK’S atmospheric chaos energy, Shadow had reached his limit without an infusion from an Emerald. The running, fighting, and healing was all far too much and had simply sucked his reserves dry.

 

Shadow made a quiet cracking noise in his throat as the bullet wounds seared again. He glanced down gingerly, oddly disconnected as he pulled apart the shreds of his t-shirt. The holes had begun to leak once more, but the shrapnel remained beneath his skin, burning like a brand. His bones turned to water.

 

“Good grief…” Shadow slurred, eyes losing focus as he slid down the wall, painting a broad, scarlet swathe behind him.

Maria turned at the words, just in time to see Shadow’s decorated wrists rattle as they hit the floor.

 

The blood drained from her face as she watched her friend’s pool at his abdomen.

 

“Shadow!”

 

Maria trembled as she hooked her hands under his armpits and quickly dragged him towards the launch pad, nervous energy fuelling her laboured movements. When he lay in the circle, she pulled a lacey blue handkerchief from her sleeve and pressed it over the wound. She shakily took one of Shadow’s hands to replace her palm with his own to weigh upon the cloth.

 

“Don’t worry Shadow, it’ll be ok. Like you said: you’re tougher than Popeye,” She garbled, if only to reassure herself, as the hedgehog stirred with a groan. Her eyes prickled as she leant down to kiss his cheek.

 

The gesture had always helped in the past, when Shadow had to go through a particularly gruelling experiment or medical procedure, often for Maria’s sake. Whenever she saw him after the fact, she would kiss his velvety cheek, tasting salt where she knew tears had been at one point or another. He _never_ cried out, but she knew.

 

Even now, barely aware of his surroundings, Shadow’s chest stopped hitching quite so rapidly.

 

“You just need to hang in there, and we’ll get help when we land.” She promised, frantically pushing her hair behind her ears as she darted up. The blonde was now streaked with red when she reached the console. Her fingertips deposited dark, sticky prints on the keys as she worked.

 

“Alright, no need… No need to ‘get into a tizz’. I just need to set the countdown… Just enough to get on the pad and then we’re scot free!”

 

Grandfather had always taught her that breaking down a problem made it easier to solve. She remembered his words now, silently praying he was indeed fine as Shadow suggested.

 

The timer screen blinked before her eyes, awaiting her input.

 

_Twenty seconds ought to do it._

 

Shadow pulled himself back into consciousness to see Maria over at the console. Her face was white but also grim with determination.

 

He had to feel a hazy swell of pride, when the room’s door whooshed open. A dark figure with a handgun waited in the open portal.

 

“Maria!”

 

The girl whipped around, facing the soldier.

 

“Stop right there!” He barked, a dark visored helmet rendering him expressionless. Maria could see her own reflection, scared and small… But she also saw the shape of Shadow in its peripheral, unable to get up despite his best efforts.

She flicked her focus sideways, towards the friend that tried to inch toward her with agony in his face, but death in his eyes.

 

“Maria… I’m co-!” a painful coughing fit took him, spraying crimson over the launchpad.

 

“Hands up where I can see them.” The soldier warned, leveling his gun with Maria’s chest.

The girl’s knees threatened to turn to jelly, but she managed to stand firm, doing what she was asked.

 

Feeling left the tips of her blood caked fingers as she stared the Soldier down, her gaze levelled to where his might have been.

 

There wasn’t time. Maria’s body felt paralyzed, but her mind roared like a furnace.

 

_When making a decision, it is often prudent to use Occam’s razor:_

_More often than not, when all unimportant factors are cut away, the simplest explanation or solution is best._

The Sage Doctor’s words echoed in her mind as she gave the console a surreptitious glance, flexing her fingers experimentally.

 

There was no way she could overpower the Soldier, and Shadow was struggling to hang on to consciousness. However, the glass of the pod was thick, designed to withstand atmospheric reentry… And possibly bullets.

 

An eruption of muffled footsteps and the rattle of weapons grew louder by the second, coming from the observation deck.

 

Maria’s hands shook, then fisted.

 

She would only need to hit one button.

 

“Hey, what are you-?”

 

Her dainty hand came down with all its might on a large maroon button on the console’s left side.

 

Shadow was jolted out of his stupor by the thud of a transparent cylinder casing him in.  He blinked, his nose suddenly touching glass as he gaped at Maria through it.

 

Although the pod excluded noise from the outside, a speaker was fitted to its ceiling, allowing him to hear the exchange regardless through the console’s PA system.

 

The girl shoved at the guard as hard as she could, before ripping the microphone from the dash and running to the tube as a hiss of hydraulics began their alignment.

 

Maria fingers pressed to those that smeared the glass, a sad smile dimpling her cheeks.

 

 

_“Maria…!”_

 

She could only read his lips since the PA only worked one way. She raised the mic to her mouth, trying to keep her voice level.

 

“I’m sorry, Shadow, but please try to understand. They need you down there, but they don’t need _me_ -"

 

Her sentence halted, as a gunshot caused feedback to echo inside the pod. Blue eyes flickered, filled with the silently hysterical face of Shadow, who beat with whatever strength remained in him at the invisible wall. Maria saw rather than felt the bullet’s effects, since it had passed through her spine, but it hardly mattered now as she watched her own blood splatter dribble down in front of her friend’s streaming eyes.

 

She allowed herself to slump forward, forehead to the cool glass as she continued to talk.

 

“For a better future, please do this for me…”

 

The first soldier looked to be in some sort of shock over Maria’s shoulder, the handgun hanging loosely at his side as more troops filed into the room.

 

“Give them the chance to be happy, and… And live for the both of us.”

 

Her breathing was laboured, tinny through the speaker, but Shadow could hardly hear it over his desperate pleas. His knuckles were raw and bloody from his pounding, which in the end was still not enough.

 

A tiny flash of pearly teeth greeted him one last time, when a garbled order from a commanding officer was followed by a spray of scarlet from Maria’s chest.

 

Shadow _screamed_. He couldn’t breathe, but he also couldn’t stop as she slid down the glass, her gentle face fixed with a serene expression while her eyelids began to droop. Gravity carried Maria sideways at last, but her gaze never left him as the hatches opened beneath the pod. The mic had clattered down beside her head allowing for her final words.

 

“I… Love you… And be Good.”

 

Her eyes became dull marbles as light left them, but the helpless creature in the capsule could hardly see anymore.

 

“Sayonara, Shadow…”

 

All at once, the pod detached from its dock, shooting at a blinding velocity into the cold, quiet void.

 

Shadow felt himself begin to float - free fall, they called it - as his entire world rushed away from him in a single, gruesome instant.

 

Small liquid orbs of crimson drifted around him, one or two gravitated towards the smear on the glass outside. It was hard to discern anything with his swollen eyes, or breathe with his eviscerated body, but he managed to crumble regardless.

 

Alone in space, where no one could hear him scream, the Ultimate Lifeform cried for the end of Everything.

 

Tears flowed until his eyes were dry.

 

Wails pealed out one after the other until his throat felt utterly scraped clean.

 

And as the atmosphere enveloped the little glass vessel in flames, the bullets were finally rejected from his body and popped out from his waist and thigh.

 

Shadow regarded the metal pellets dumbly as his wounds closed, infused with the immense Chaotic radiation of the Planet that drew him towards it like a magnet.

 

He should have felt invigorated by the charge, frightened by the rattling around him, or even distraught from his loss. Instead he felt nothing but a numb ache. The only sign of life he could express beyond his husk was an animal preservation instinct. His lungs filled to capacity, fangs bared as he let himself go and howl.

 

The voice was broken, hoarse from overuse, and splintered like bone china as he tried to sustain it.

 

But it was all the company he had as the pod threatened to buckle under the pressure outside, its stunted echo both a pain and a comfort as he crashed into a green, white and blue oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha and it only gets BETTER from here on out.
> 
> I never bought the idea would just be able to CONVINCE Shadow to get in the pod, so excuse the gruesome plot device.
> 
> I also imagined that since the ARK was so big, it might also have an Enterprise situation where there’s recreational things like a pool, a greenhouse etc. Even space for an indoor sports hall for baseball/ basketball etc. To keep the residents sane. I could be completely wrong but it’s what I’d LIKE to see.
> 
>  
> 
> Please comment and let me know what you thought or if you'd like to see any other events! (If I haven't already started working on them.)
> 
> As always, Con-crit and beta corrections are always appreciated as well. Xx
> 
> (Illustration by me.)


	2. Jail House Rock!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Prison Break. A Heart Break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elvis is appropriate all the time.
> 
> -Glossary-
> 
> Brake fluid: Prison slang for anti psychotic medication, in this context it also refers to sedatives.

For the first time in fifty years, he lived.

 

 

The circumstances about his revival mattered little as foggy glass lifted up and away from him, but one thing was for certain: A drink of water, and perhaps something stronger was about five decades overdue.  
There was a faint sound of someone talking through the swirling clouds, the shapes indistinct but their words becoming more clear with each passing moment.

“... _This_ is their secret weapon? How can that be?”

Shadow huffed out his own misty plume as he took his first breath in far too long, throat coated in ice crystals that stung as he quietly inhaled again. The voice continued grumble.

 

“For a second I thought it was that blue bunion playing a trick on me again, but even he doesn’t pull pranks this elaborate: this stiff here doesn’t look like he’s been thawed out in a long time.”

 

A long fingered hand gloved in white emerged from the fog, and curled around a small set of metal tags that rested upon his chest from a chain on Shadow's neck.

 

“ ‘Project Shadow’,” The voice said, sounding pensive. “Incarcerated… 1959?!”

The stranger’s wrist was caught in a vice-like grip, a gold bracelet rattling the links that bound it. A yelp sounded as Shadow sat up, but everything was still a little blurry as he squinted through frost covered lashes.

  
The hedgehog began to give off steam when he gathered residual Chaotic energy, sighing as it began to flow through his body like a tropical tidal wave. Silver caked spines gave way to black, and Shadow saw his present company properly for the first time.

There was a familiarity to the shape of the man’s head, and immediate recognition upon seeing the hooked nose over a rather resplendent moustache.  
The wrist was released, Shadow’s hand jerking back as if burned.

“Doctor Robotnik.” He breathed, only to see the other’s hairless brows lift in surprise.

“How do you know that?” The man indeed named Robotnik queried. He waited and watched ‘Project Shadow’ stare at him in a far off way, as if he was trying to make sense of what he saw.

“I wasn’t even born when you were put into this chest freezer, so how do you know me?”

Realisation slowly dawned in Shadow’s face as he finally noted the lack of wrinkles and the healthy chestnut colour of Robotnik’s impressive lip hair.

“A descendent.” He stated quietly, slowly bringing his dark fingers to his mouth. ‘Robotnik’ frowned, unsure how to process the shock in the Hedgehog’s face when it shifted into something else. Determination narrowed those scarlet eyes as he attempted to stand, only to halt.

  
Iron chains held his wrists and ankles, a final link haphazardly welded around the inside of his bracelets. It wasn’t an awful idea, since an immense amount of energy was needed to release the rings at all. However, the chains were feeble in comparison to the golden bands, and Shadow met resistance for only a second before they snapped with a sharp yank from each powerful limb.

 ~~~~  
Faster than the human could step back, Shadow swung his legs over the edge of the tank to face him.

“I am honoured to meet another member of the Robotnik family.” Shadow snapped off a rattling salute, his face the picture of sincerity.  
“It will be my pleasure to serve you, Doctor.”

The addressed seemed to be at a complete loss for words. Here he was, looking into the dark mirror of his Arch-nemesis’ countenance, pledging his allegiance merely because of his blood ties.

“Um… Thank you, er…?”

“Shadow, Sir.”

“Ah. Yes, thank you, Shadow. I am pleased to accept your services. My name is Ivo Robotnik, but you may call me Doctor Eggman.” The scientist gestured to himself with a flourish, chin lifted with a certain sense of pride.  
Shadow, who up until this point had seemed invested in the Doctor’s words, blanked at the moniker.

“Doctor… _Eggman_?” Shadow asked, with an incredulous twist of his lip. Eggman’s grandeur faltered briefly.

“Well, yes. All great scientists in the Genius bracket must define themselves. I would never dream of wanting to be mistaken for my grandfather, out of respect, of course.”

“Of course.” The hedgehog echoed, conceding that it made some manner of sense. So Gerald Robotnik was Eggman’s grandfather, but then, did that mean he was also related to...?

His head began to hurt. 

 

_“Containment breach in section 13. Bulkhead Lockdown in progress!”_

 

The announcement shrieked abruptly over tinny speakers, its feedback making the pair wince.

“Ah, that might be our cue to leave.” The scientist said quickly, as Shadow hopped away from his former coffin.  
The hedgehog felt his head rush for a spell, the sensation in his hands and feet slowly returning when he stood fully.

“Ugh… It seems the brake fluids are finally draining off.” He muttered to himself, watching his new charge prepare for their escape.

 

Eggman, a master of self preservation, turned and scurried towards an impressive set of bionic legs. He climbed into the cockpit, rather looking like he was wearing giant robotic trousers, and turned towards the exit.  
Their progress was stopped sharply as the room’s bulkhead opened, admitting an even larger mech, easily twice Eggman’s size and armed to the proverbial teeth.

 

Giving a small, surprised yell, Eggman began to sweat, only to forget his panic when he laid eyes on his diminutive prize. Shadow had been looking on with his arms crossed, seemingly underwhelmed by the behemoth that was stalking towards them with hulking pneumatic steps.

“Shadow… Little help?” Eggman said dryly, catching the other’s attention. If he was a ‘weapon’ then perhaps there was a chance for them to put that to good use.

“Of course, Doctor.” Shadow answered as he nodded curtly, casually walked over to the head of his cryogenic casket.  
There, embedded in a slot was an ice white gem that shone from within.

“Stand down, you have nowhere to go: If you try anything, we will fire!” Called a mechanical voice from the prison mech.

Shadow continued in his mysterious task, humming and tapping a foot. As he wrenched the Chaos Emerald from its cradle, a low song began to spill from his lips.

“The Warden threw a party in the county jail, the prison band was there and they began to wail…”

Eggman looked on in wonder as a flash erupted from the heart of the emerald, lifting away any residual flakes of frost in Shadow’s quills.

“The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing…”

“Open fire engaged!” Announced the mech and a spray of bullets erupted from the gatling guns on its shoulders.

“You should've heard them knocked-out jailbirds sing-"

The bullets ripped the stasis tank apart, sparks and Perspex flew every which way, but none of the debris belonged to the mech’s target.

Another flash and Shadow appeared above its head, his face split wide in a smile.

“Let’s _Rock_!”

The hedgehog dove, energy crackling when he put a fist out in front of him. It connected with the cockpit of the mech, spider cracks formed and popped the glass out of its frame.  
Shadow grabbed the edge of it, only to see that the unit was unmanned. Typical, but then he supposed it meant there was no need to hold back. He hooked both hands over the lip of the cockpit, wedged his legs against the mech’s chest and fed his skates a sudden burst of chaos.

Shadow’s soles flared like magnesium, reducing the hull of the mech to liquid before he kicked away, tucked into a crisp somersault and landed with the lightness of a moth’s wing beat, buffeted on fire and air.

“Code Red! Hot Shot has taken heavy damage, request for backup!” The metallic voice piped up again from its empty cockpit, most likely from a radio.  
A curl raised Shadow’s lip as he hummed again, snapping his fingers as his knees rippled once in a peculiar rhythm.

“Everybody in the whole cell block- ” He sang, as he skated towards ‘Hot Shot’ at a blinding speed.

  
A pipe was ripped from the wall as Shadow passed with the ease of a child plucking a daisy in a meadow. He raised it as if to throw a spear.

 

“-Was dancing to the _Jailhouse Rock_!”

 

 

Without further ado, Shadow drove the steel pipe with uncanny force and accuracy through the joint of Hot Shot’s leg, shattering the connection and causing the limb to collapse. It managed to scramble into the air using a set of thrusters on its back, the leg dangling uselessly as its guns readied to fire once more.

Being a clever man, Eggman had tactically retreated behind a steel support column on the other side of the chamber, eyes wide and mouth agape.  
He had fought his pesky blue porcupine many times and lost, to his dismay, due to the immense speed and agility Sonic possessed.  
But Shadow was in a class of his own: Not only did he have speed to rival his doppelganger, but a strength and projectile ability that the Doctor had never seen outside of the rare infusion of Chaos energy which stained that Sonic's infernal blue quills a shining, dangerous gold.

Shadow, unaware of his audience’s thoughts, merely continued to brawl, side stepping bullets with the grace of a dancer. As fun as this was, however, it was time to wrap it up.

He gathered speed, drawing energy from the gem on his person, and tucked himself into a high velocity spin that left a black, ghostly after image. The spines on his head shone with a deadly promise as he entered the hole he’d made earlier, fulfilled when they revved against the mechanical heart, circuits and scraps flying as he buzzed through to the other side.

  
Shadow blinked the oil from his eyes as he exited the back of the Mech, stuck the landing and turned to see his handiwork for a final time. The flares from its thrusters caught spurts of fuel that now erupted from the disembowelled centre, setting the entire construct alight and in the next moment engulfing it in a fiery explosion.

“And _stay_ down, you hunk of junk…”

Satisfied with his result, Shadow sauntered back to the Doctor’s side, an expectant look on his face.  
Eggman had to pick his jaw up from the ground before he turned to Shadow, speechless.

“I believe I have ‘helped’, Doctor.” The hedgehog said smoothly, using the sleeve of his undershirt to wipe at the grease on his face.

“Y-Yes. Very good, Shadow. Excellent work.” The man spluttered, finally engaging the feet of his own mechanical marvel. Shadow skated alongside him at a leisurely pace.

  
“I hoped you would be pleased. I am rather curious to see what else has changed around this place, since they admitted me.” The hedgehog went on casually. “The monstrosity back there was a surprise.”

  
Eggman spared a glance, unreadable as they blasted through the bulkheads ahead of them with a few well placed missiles.

“There’s nothing out there that you can’t handle, my lad.” He said in an almost paternal tone. “Except maybe…”

Black ears perked up, sensing hesitation. “Except _what_?”

The Doctor gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Weeeeell, no one, really. I suppose I understand where he might have gained the abilities he has, if yours are _typical_ of your species.”

 

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks, frowning.

 

“What do you mean, ‘typical of my species’?” He said quietly, when Eggman also brought his walker to a halt.  
The man gave a small shrug.

 

“I deal with a young upstart now and then. He likes to throw a spanner into my operations more than I’d like, a real hippie type.”

Here, Eggman managed a sorrowful look.

“All I’m trying to do is provide better technology to this backwards planet, and he kicks it back in my face with those sound barrier-breaking legs of his.”

Shadow absorbed these words and nodded slowly. “So this hedgehog is fast?” He asked, looking thoughtful.

Eggman rolled his eyes behind their lenses.  
“He claims to be ‘The fastest thing alive’. But I don’t think that’s the case anymore, especially after seeing you at work today.”

There was another small nod from Shadow as he started to move again, prompting Eggman to follow suit. The sound of more soldiers and their infernal machines approaching made Shadow’s fingers clench, though for what reason he couldn’t quite say. While his body had recovered from his long sleep, his mind remained in that strange halfway place that made his last memories before today somewhat cloudy for the moment.

He could deal with that in due time, he reasoned, as those unusual skates sparked into life once more and the hedgehog prepared himself for another brawl.

“Don’t let this… _Inferior_ fellow trouble your mind, Doctor. As a token of gratitude for my release, please allow me to remove his spines from your side once the opportunity presents itself. I can assure you, there is nothing _typical_ about me.”

The guards came into view now, guns cocked as they were flanked by more future scrap heaps. Shadow began to hum again, a lethal glimmer in his eye.

_You won’t be disappointed, I guarantee it._

 

* * *

 

 

Blue.

 

  
Shadow's eyes had never seen so much of it in one place, but the shade was unmistakable as he breeched the final door and rushed out into open air for the first time.

  
It was all he could focus on as alarms wailed and machinery smoked in his wake, punctuated by the sounds of fallen men in pain. It was that very colour that stopped him from dealing a killing blow to any of them, albeit in a smaller, foggier dose.  
Now the blend of sky and sea threatened to swallow the hedgehog up, his chest and throat growing tight as the origin of its hue ignited a cold spark in his heart. A shaking hand grabbed at the spot, fingers fisted in the white fur there.

  
He was isolated in an invisible cylinder again, cut off from sound and warmth as the emptiness beckoned him from the daunting hatch below.

  
The image of a fragile Madonna face with eyes the same as this endless expanse flashed in front of him as it slid away from crimson splattered glass. Guilt knotted Shadow's stomach, his waist and thigh itching in phantom pain.

  
Shadow wished he didn't have to remember right now, in this hectic place when there was no time to breathe or weep, or even give the restored memory of his most beloved the reverence it deserved. The sound of panting reached his ears, only to realise it was coming from himself as his peripheral blurred.  
Eggman cracked Shadow's paralysis, shouting through the sirens that still whined from behind them.

  
“Come along Shadow, I'd rather not stick around here, the stress is no good for this flawless complexion.” The Scientist said, pushing a button on his dash to activate a transformation in his walker.  
Shadow shook his head to dislodge the ghastly image, biting down harshly on his lip to bring him back to the present. He tasted metal briefly and hoped that the trembling would stop soon as he leapt onto the newly formed wing of Eggman's vehicle.

  
Thrusters burst into life, lifting the pair easily into the air and away from the awful screeching, lost over time to the whipping wind and tossing waves below them as they skimmed the sea.

Shadow opened his mouth, allowing the salty taste to settle on his tongue as he gazed out at the water. The spray clung to his fur and tousled it into small whorls, but it mattered little as he found himself looking at the glinting surface up close when he never thought he'd have the chance.

From space, the oceans had seemed like a solid blue mass where they lay, like the contours of a marble's inner pattern, but being here allowed Shadow to absorb facets of detail he couldn't have imagined to exist.  
  
Fingers tightened over the metal wing’s edge, for purchase and frustration, as Shadow was once more reminded of what exactly had been lost. How unfair it was that he was here, and she was not. He allowed himself to believe that the salty streaks on his muzzle where just remnants of surf that had caught it on their journey.

In the midst of relative tranquillity, a dark flame began to smoulder in Shadow's core, quiet but as deadly as rising smoke. This world was too good for them, for all the hideous roaches on this beautiful planet. There was only one who it was worthy of, and the inhabitants that kept him in that Hell hole were the ones that also saw fit to cut her down.

A bitter curl lifted the side of his mouth.

Shadow's hand ghosted over the glorious gem in his pocket and comforted himself with the promise of power it held.

 

It was time to collect what had been taken from him and the universe in one fell swoop, and the price would be dire. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am shameless and have no regrets. Shadow loved the way Elvis danced so let's pay homage! 
> 
> The formatting has been awful on this chapter because rich text doesn't want to translate on mobile apparently lol. If there are any problems please let me know. 
> 
> As always, comments, questions etc. are super appreciated and I hope to upload a new chapter soon! 
> 
> ( Illustration by me. )


	3. Hitting the Diamond, Lifting the Emerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which games are played, on two different fields.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am from Britain, so we don't have baseball. However, I was pretty good at rounders in my youth, which is pretty similar, so it wasn't hard to gather the rules of its American cousin. If I got anything wrong, please let me know! 
> 
> P.S. I had to reformat the whole thing on my mobile, so if there's problems, again, please let me know.

Gerald had grown to love Wednesdays.

 

On that blessed afternoon each week, he would meander from his second home in the lab to the recreation hall for a few precious hours.

  
The space was vast, floored with green linoleum and high walls that made voices seem to bounce for minutes at a time. There, in the small set of bleachers, would be his granddaughter, wearing her favourite frock that day. Maria would smile just as brightly every time, even if she had to arrive by wheelchair, or remain attached to an IV drip: These games meant just as much to her as they did her grandfather, if not more so due to the _other_ reason they attended.

  
Gerald watched Maria's face glow with excitement, her large blue eyes wide in anticipation. The bases were set up , the mounds ready to accommodate the pitcher and batter, and fielders began to spread out as they left the locker rooms.

  
The girl glanced between the open doors and the odd, clunky pair of shoes she kept by her ankles, as if to ensure they were still there from seconds ago. Taking care of things entrusted to you by loved ones was very important, after all.

  
By now, other ARK residents began to fill the benches behind the pair, chanting and discussing which team they favoured to win based on that week's randomly generated roster.

  
One factor would tend to swing their loyalties, and there was a cheer (and groans) as he stepped onto the diamond, with Maria screaming the loudest. The phrase ‘bet on Black' was never more appropriate than when Shadow was assigned to your chosen squad, and it would be a lie to say he didn't enjoy the attention a _little_ bit.

  
Gerald often felt a little swell of pride when he saw his creation out there, a Louisville slugger -affectionately dubbed ‘C.C.'- slung over his shoulder as he waved to his fans good naturedly. Shadow would always stop on his stroll across the field, however, to greet his biggest supporters. Maria smiled in a way that her grandfather had only ever seen reserved for the hedgehog, surreptitiously pushing a small paper-wrapped rectangle into his free hand.

  
Shadow's fingers closed around the gift and he nodded to Gerald politely. “Such a pleasure to see you here, Doctor. It means a lot that you make time in your schedule for this.”

  
Gerald banished the notion with a wave.

  
“Nonsense, my boy. It's the highlight of our week.” The man hummed thoughtfully. “Although I suppose it's difficult to really root for the other fellows when your team has you.”

  
Shadow made a doubtful sound.

  
“Oh, I don't know, sir. There are certainly some strong contenders on the blue squad, today. Griffith has gotten by me a handful of times with that excellent curve ball of his, and Ryland is a master when it comes to psyching guys out on the plate.”

  
A bare brow rose as Gerald tried to figure out where this strange sense of humility came from, but it became clear when he remembered who Shadow's ‘sister’ was. The hedgehog turned to her now, his posture relaxed.

  
“You keeping my kickers safe, sweetness?” Shadow asked, unwrapping the gum and popping it into his mouth. Maria beamed back and indicated to the rocket skates with a flourish.

  
“If they go anywhere, I'm going to have to borrow C.C. to get them back.” She giggled. Gerald tutted, noting how the girl could be a touch more sassy around her dark friend. The old man reasoned that he would take an occasional wicked gleam in her eye over the glassy hopelessness of her early years, though.

  
“That's my girl. And remember: Always go for the gut.” The hedgehog reminded her with a devilish wink, making Maria laugh again. Gerald couldn't help but notice how Shadow's gaze lingered just a little on the cannula in the girl's arm, only to flick back again warmly to her sun-shaming grin.

  
“Don't worry Shadow, you can count on me.” She said, a fond look spreading across the hedgehog's face. The opening notes from an electronic organ began to fill the hall, the crowd's excitement growing with every key climb.  
“I know I can.” Shadow said gently, before he ruffled Maria's hair and jogged towards the team bench. His feet looked curiously small in normal canvas sneakers, but that was one of the stipulations he was given to play with the rest of the team. Another was the extra set of silver rings around his wrists and ankles, their fit snug around each limb.

  
A lot of caveats were set in place after the first time Shadow had played baseball, which was a few years ago now.

 

Gerald remembered that day, when Maria had brought them to watch a practice. The girl had never been able to really join in due to her poor health, but her dark little friend's eyes had lit up with every powerful hit and daring slide into base.

  
None of the Baseball team could deny Maria's gentle request to let Shadow have a swing to see how he fared against them. A few laughs were stifled when the hedgehog stepped up: He hadn't quite grown to maturity at this point, so the bat was almost bigger than himself.

  
There was certainly a fire in him, though, a grim determination flattening his mouth into a thin line. The pitcher threw the ball in a lazy ark, light enough for even the awkwardly balanced child to hit.

  
The resulting impact against the hall's panelling may have caused a breach if the ball hadn't disintegrated against it, matching the splintered bat dropped at the home plate. In addition, Shadow's homerun also scorched the linoleum and rendered three out of four bases unusable.  
Little Shadow celebrated as a child would, oblivious to the horror plastered on everyone's faces but his and Maria's as they danced and cheered amongst themselves.

Since that day, after many apologies and compromises, extra safeguards had been implemented so Shadow could play again without causing too much damage. Gerald had seen to it that the extra rings bound the ultimate lifeform's innate supernatural strength to within the parameters of an athletic male human, and his chaotic skates were traded for a pair of regular Chuck Taylor's.

  
Shadow had accepted the changes gladly, if it meant he could play... And see Maria's face brighten up each time he won.

 

 

Klaxons sounded to signal the start of the first inning, so Gerald returned to the present and accepted a peppermint candy when his Granddaughter offered one. Their announcer boomed over the PA, his words bouncing around the hall.

  
“Let's welcome our ‘ _ARK Angels_ ’ to the field, Ladies and Gentlemen! Our Blue team will be fielding first, with the Red team up to bat, and you know what _that_ means, folks...”

  
There was a cacophonous sound as Shadow walked to the plate, equal parts cheers and groans depending on which colour they had put their wagers on.  
They began to quiet down when the hedgehog stepped into the batting box, tapping his toes against the ground and twirling the slugger once like a bulky baton. There was a giggle from Maria when Shadow blew a large, pink gum bubble that he burst with his teeth. His dark fingers curled around the bat’s handle, eyes trained with laser-like focus on the pitcher’s movements.

  
For a moment, Gerald allowed himself to remember the first time Shadow took this position in a game, how the hem of his jersey sat below his knees. It was incredible to see how his creation had grown in such a short time, both in size and strength. What was more amazing was how much Maria had come to care for Shadow, and vice versa.

  
The scientist didn't think that his granddaughter could have thrived against her illness quite so well, if not for the support (and willing donations) from her friend. It really did feel to Gerald like he had two grandchildren at this point, even if it wasn't protocol to grow personally invested in Government property. Honestly, he found he didn't care.

  
Griffith threw that infamous curve ball of his now, passing Shadow's hefty swing like a comet.

  
“Strike one!”

  
The pitcher smirked as Shadow readjusted himself. There was another lightning throw, so fast that it whizzed audibly when it eluded Shadow again and thudded heavily into the catcher's mitt.

  
“Strike two!”

  
Spectators began to murmur now, and Gerald turned to Maria who held her delicate fingers to her mouth, brow pinched. Her eyes rounded a touch when Shadow caught her look and offered a barely perceptible wink. He rolled his shoulders and a ripple of winces radiated through the crowd as he loosened his neck with a pronounced crunch.

  
“Heeeeeyyyy Batter, Batter...” Came a soft taunt from the Catcher's box. Shadow’s ears didn't even twitch, his world only consisting of a white ball with cherry red stitches that waited in the Pitcher's mitt. Griffith met Shadow's gaze, a grin dimpling the Human's cheeks as he wound up, his leg raised as if on a ballet bar, and pitched.

  
It was a thing of beauty: the tightest, fastest and most brutal throw that the man had ever delivered. Griffith's triumphant smile quickly turned to a gape of dismay as Shadow exhaled and swung.

  
If the ball had been a blur, then the bat was almost invisible. It connected with a wonderful ‘thwock' that sent the ball flying towards the outfield with no signs of slowing. There had been no chaotic energy behind the hit, only years of practice and dedication that shone through when it mattered most.

  
Maria jumped up , beaming so widely that it threatened to split her face while her surprised grandfather almost choked on his mint. She cupped her hands around her mouth, ignoring the tube of her cannula, shouting at the top of her lungs.

  
“Run Shadow, _run_!”

  
The bat clattered to the ground, and he was off. All Star soles slapped against the ground as Shadow sprinted to the first base, then second, the motion looking comparatively clumsy without the smooth glide of his skates. White and the other fielders had really hustled, and were already throwing the ball to Drummond on third base. They were too late, as Drummond missed his opportunity and tossed to Smith on fourth as hard as he could.

  
Shadow yelled as he dashed and flung his heels forward into a skid, providing a photo finish. The hedgehog’s ankles lay on the base as Smith crouched with the ball.  
The crowd held their breath as the umpire deliberated. A tense moment passed, but then there came a cry of-

  
“... Safe!”

  
“You heard that right, folks, we have our first home run of the game! Awarded to the red team, courtesy of our very own _ARK Angel_ native, Shadow!”

  
There was a roar from the crowd as Shadow briefly covered his face with his hands, concealing a smirk. Gerald chuckled to himself. The boy was a strange fellow, with an obvious flare for the dramatic to boot. The old man watched Shadow get up without his hands and swagger back to the bench, where his whooping team mates clapped him on the back and gave him an affectionate noogie.

  
It was almost impossible now to consider that G.U.N. had wanted to keep their Project's social interaction to a minimum. That would have been too cruel, not to mention unhealthy to mental and physical growth. As long as Shadow completed their training, and passed their inspections, they didn't need to know about his extracurricular activities.

  
“Grandfather, did you see that? Shadow was amazing, it was so close but he did it like I knew he could!" Maria said breathlessly, her dainty fist in the air.

  
This Wednesday afternoon, with its electric atmosphere, peppermint candy and happy Grand Children was all Gerald could ask for out of life. He turned to look into the excited face of his granddaughter, only to find it had lost its glow.

  
The rose in her cheeks was replaced with a sallow tone, soaked in a sudden feverish sheen. Maria's eyes lost focus before rolling up into her head. Gerald caught her, shouted for help, and he hardly drew a second breath before Shadow was at their side, a trail of four thin, silver bangles in his wake.

  
“ _Maria_! Maria, oh please, hold on...”

  
Shadow scooped up the girl effortlessly, his face in a rictus of terror. He looked to Gerald now, who was tugging the drip from her arm, desperate and ready to move. “Whatever she needs I'm ready to give, Doctor: just tell me what to do!”

  
There was no doubt was in his voice. No hesitation in his movements. Only love.  
The audience had grown quiet now, murmurs filling the hall. A few sounds of complaint broke out over the susurrus when Shadow and Dr Robotnik bolted through the exit without another word.

Griffith arrived in the medical wing at half time with Shadow's skates, the IV hook and Maria's forgotten pack of Bazooka Joe gum.

 

* * *

 

Shadow didn't know what day of the week it was, but it did so happen to be a Wednesday.

It was the least of his questions as he sat on a table in Dr Robotnik's- Dr _Eggman's_ briefing room, contemplating an improbable but definitely real piece of Bubble Gum. They might have changed the recipe over the years, but the jokes had evidently never improved.

  
Shadow blew a large bubble as he read the punny little comic found on the inside of its wrapper. He drew the bubble back into his mouth and popped it with his teeth, thoughtful.

  
“The consistency is better at any rate,” He muttered, chewing. “Too bad these comics are just as bland.”

“What was that, Shadow?”

  
The addressed snapped his head up, giving Eggman a long look. The man was frowning, a bald brow knitted above his goggles. Shadow cleared his throat lightly and tucked the gum wrapper into his pocket. The Robotnik resemblance really was uncanny, so much so that Shadow's responses fell back into their old rhythm.

  
“Nothing, Doctor. Just remarking on how the times have changed, but some things never do.” He said smoothly, a curious curl to his lip.

  
“Yes, I can imagine this is quite a shock to you, after all.” Eggman said, absently smoothing his moustache. “You seem to be doing rather well, actually. Most people wouldn't be coping like you are if they found out they'd lost over fifty years of history in the blink of an eye.”

  
A beat passed.

  
“I was designed to be robust, Doctor. Physically and otherwise.” Shadow said evenly. This seemed to assure Eggman, earning a nod.

  
“Of course... My grandfather was always a perfectionist, so we have his excellent craftsmanship to thank for your good health.”

  
Shadow’s half smile faded, but he said nothing. It wasn't exactly pleasant to be reminded that he was merely _grown_ instead of born. He looked forward to a large monitor that brimmed with images and diagnostics for a Chaos Emerald, determined to change the subject.

  
“I see you have your sights set Old Green for the collection.” Shadow observed, lips pursed as he read over the annotations on screen. Eggman puffed up, his long fingers stretching towards his research.

  
“A keen eye you have, my lad!” He confirmed, goggles flashing in the screen light. “Once I acquire enough Chaos Emeralds, I'll use their power to fuel my _next_ delightfully destructive design.”

  
Eggman erupted into a fit of cackles while Shadow looked on, silent bar the pop of his gum bubble. When the Scientist started to calm down, he decided to speak.

  
“What if I told you... That you didn't have to build anything new?” Shadow said quietly, his face carefully blank. Eggman stopped wringing his hands and met his ruby red gaze. The doctor's silence was a cue for the Hedgehog to continue.

  
“I know of an all powerful weapon, ready to dominate any enemy you could dream up.” Shadow paused and pointed a finger upward. “All you need is a few Chaos Emeralds, plus a way into orbit and I'll give you a demonstration that you won't soon forget.”

  
The spark of intrigue was visible even through dark lenses as Eggman rubbed his chin. What could he lose if he didn't even have to lay out the hideous costs for a new machine? He already had a space worthy vessel in his hangar...

  
Shadow waited and fought to urge to tap his foot.

  
“You have yourself a deal.” The doctor grinned, resembling a maniacal moustachioed moon “If you can _also_ help me nab the other Emeralds. To expediate the process, naturally.”

  
Shadow, who had turned back to the monitor, cast the man a heavy lidded glance, smiling with his eyes. The barest peek of teeth glinted in the low light.

  
“Naturally.” He echoed, before an unnatural blue flashed and caught his attention in the bottom corner of the screen. Frowning, Shadow tapped the image to expand it.

  
There, grinning in a way that made the black hedgehog's cheeks hurt to even look at, was a blue look-alike. The features, however, weren't precisely the same: the stranger's were rounder and soft where his were sharp, coupled with a paler muzzle and sleek quills, the last of which made Shadow grimace just a little harder, since he could never get his to lie flat.

  
The colours were night and day, his doppelganger with Absinthe coloured eyes and coat a shade of blue Shadow had only ever seen in a pixie stick. There was also a sneaking suspicion that this individual _waxed_. While Shadow studied, the scientist sneered.

  
“Ugh, that periwinkle pipsqueak lives in Station Square. I always have to factor his presence into the proceedings in case he wants to botch our little reclamation operation.” Eggman grumbled, but Shadow still didn't look away.

  
Although this creature was nigh on abrasive to behold with sensitive eyes, Shadow couldn't help but stare, his palm flattened to the screen over the stranger's two dimensional cheek.

  
He had never seen another of his kind before.

  
“Your ‘Spanner', I take it.” Shadow asked in a way that wasn't really a question, his eyes still glued to the image. The scientist groused again, his arms folded with an audible ‘humph’.

  
“Imagine a Cactus, then give it awful one liners plus super speed and you get Sonic.” Eggman said caustically.

  
“ ‘Sonic', huh?” Shadow mused, drawing his hand away. “...I think I can kill two birds with one stone for you, Doctor.”

  
The statement snapped Eggman somewhat out of his funk, though his tone was sceptical.  
“Oh really, and which buzzards are on your hit list, exactly?”

  
“You said it yourself before, Sir. You wanted the quills in your side removed. I can be that tool. ” Shadow explained, with a darkness in his voice that made the human's neck hair stand to attention. The hedgehog went on.

  
“You need Old Green, as well as a certain blue nuisance out of your... hair.” Shadow said with a smirk, hand sweeping to the frozen smile on screen. “Fixing those two issues will be a cinch, and they’ll have the additional perk of letting me stretch my legs.”

  
After a pause, a low hum of consideration left Eggman's ruddy nose, his mouth a tense twist. Shadow settled back on his heels.

  
“Let's be rational, Doctor. The sooner I get these matters taken care of, the sooner I can hand you the keys to a war machine unlike any other. You need my help, and it'll be a lot faster to just let me take the wheel on this.”

  
He put his hands on his hips.

  
“After you revived me, you told me that I could match this Germ with no problem with my abilities. If he's your enemy, then who is a better judge than you? I'll lift the Emerald, use it to teach Sonic a lesson, and get you the power you _deserve_.”

  
Shadow's confidence appeared to be infectious, because a menacing grin began to break out across Eggman's face once more.

  
“Very well, my boy. I'll give you twenty-four hours to get the jobs done. It'll be useful to see how you work under pressure. I will instruct a drop off drone to wait for you at the exit. Running to Station Square might be a little tricky, even for you.”

  
That seemed to suit the hedgehog just fine. Shadow tipped his head respectfully and turned on his heel to prepare. Eggman didn't stop him and merely watched him leave down a dark corridor with an ever deepening grin.

 

* * *

 

As he walked, Shadow reached into his pocket and withdrew the folded Bazooka Joe comic. He wondered if they still accepted them in return for prizes like they had advertised back in the day.

  
Not that they would have time to ship it out to him before his work was done. What a waste, they had collected _dozens_ of those things over the years.

  
He stuffed it back into his pocket and turned into a workshop area, reaching for his makeshift kit bag. Shadow rummaged around inside, until he found a pair of worn suede gloves. There was no reason to leave prints behind, even if he didn't officially exist.

  
Once he gathered all he needed, he headed towards to exit as he pushed a small, automated speaker into his ear. Shadow had learned the art of espionage, since it was deemed necessary by his creator's military sponsors. Even though it was so long ago now, the training was fresh in his freshly thawed mind, so GUN's insistence would come back to bite them.

  
A door without visible seams opened up before the hedgehog, the strong breeze jostling his quills. Sand and stars filled his vision, the latter twinkling distantly through the haze. It occurred to Shadow that this was the first time he'd seen the stars from the ground, since he and Eggman had made it to this base before sundown: they had arrived at the strange pointed structure as the desert began to cool at dusk.

  
The blistering heat was a thing of the past as Shadow waited outside, an invigorating chill setting in that was completely different from the cryo-chamber. As promised, a sleek, black drone descended on a buffet of air, whipping up sand as it idled and opened a gull wing door. The craft was small, but not claustrophobic.

  
Shadow clambered inside and shut the cockpit as screens lit before him, awash with a blue tint. This all could have been avoided if Eggman had simply given the hedgehog an Emerald, but he supposed that earning that privilege would just be another small step: There would be another Emerald at his disposal soon enough.

  
The drone purred into life again and rose quietly into the air as Shadow made note of their current and intended coordinates. Navigating was simple when you knew how, and it never hurt to have one's bearings.

  
Dark scenery flashed outside, painted violet in partial moonlight as the small craft whizzed by. It really was an incredible sight, one that he really wished she could-

  
Gloved fingers curled into Shadow's thighs as he looked ahead. The taste had long since left his gum, but he kept right on chewing, the motion soothing as he tried to push more unpleasant things from his mind with the churn of his teeth. Of all places, he had found the gum in Eggman's glove compartment on their way from Prison Island, along with a roll of band aids. If the man noticed Shadow rifling through its contents, he hadn't said anything. The hedgehog resisted the urge to touch the adhesive strip on his left cheek now, the only protection it had from all the vileness this world might offer...

  
_Think about something else._

  
“...”

  
After a few deep, cleansing breaths, he did. He wondered if Elvis Presley ever got back into music after his military draft, or whether James Dean would be remembered for his spell binding performances, even after all this time.

  
Shadow also recalled another, more recent item to ponder on. He asked himself whether it was normal for Doctor Eggman to have a nude snapshot of his arch nemesis on his computer. If he recalled correctly, which he did, Sonic had been grinning away, wearing little more than white gloves and ostentatious red running shoes.  
Perhaps the hero had done a pin up calendar for charity or some such, but it still struck him as strange that the Doctor used that picture in his research notes. Blackmail or perversion, the hedgehog found he really couldn't say, since Sonic wasn't the ugliest thing to look at, as far as his (very) limited experience of their species went. It wouldn't matter much soon, either.

  
Time passed and the bouquet of city lights began to breach the horizon as Shadow’s air craft approached. He was nearing the drop off, an enormous red suspension bridge that loomed over the unseen depths of a wide river. The drone's door opened, allowing Shadow to poke his head out and ready himself for a jump. He took a moment to calculate his trajectory, then pushed out from the cockpit onto the highest point of the bridge, breaking into a run as soon as he landed along the strut’s thick, sloping cable with the confidence of a cat on a rail.

  
There was a thickness to the air that left the flavour of amalgamated exhaust in his mouth.

  
_Pollution_ , Shadow's mind supplied, as he activated his jets and rocketed along the cable's upward curve. As he reached the peak, he jumped and added more juice, throwing himself into a tremendous arc. Fire from his skates painted the sky with the smoky blue of a sparkler's trail as his velocity carried him over the rest of the bridge's expanse. Shadow exhaled, electric thrills clawing at his spine in a delicious way as he marvelled at the sheer amount of _space_ he had. He flipped over and over, seemingly in hang time as this moment of pure, unrestricted movement seemed to stretch as far as the night itself.

  
Right now, he couldn't even entertain the idea of his freedom being stripped away again after such an exquisite taste.

  
What goes up, must come down, the saying went, but it never said one had to land _badly_. Shadow tucked into a tight salto, rolling twice along the ground before smoothly transitioning into a low glide. A programmed voice in his ear gave Shadow directions, but he took the smaller alleys, cut across buildings where he could and kept to dark corners in a city of seemingly endless light.

  
Soon enough, Shadow found his destination, ‘The Station Square museum of Art and History.’. It was a rather ostentatious looking structure, painted high along its rounded sides with flames with some sort of tunnel forming the entrance. Unimpressed with modern tastes, Shadow's focus shifted to the glass ceiling. He'd seen this in movies a few times, when the art thieves would rappel into the museum through its vulnerable roof. It was just a little exhilarating to find oneself in a Hollywood worthy scenario.

  
The Ultimate life form was what he was through a combination of design and rigorous training regimes, practically a born and bred picture of consummate professionalism to anyone who might face him. But as he backed up, gauging the distance between himself and the building's nearest wall face on a real life heist in the dead of night, he silently wished someone could see his next trick and that he was, in fact, the _coolest_.

  
At least the results would speak for themselves.

  
Shadow centred himself with a deep breath, in for three and out for five. The take off was surprisingly quiet, besides the charred flagstone left in its wake, and he found himself launched into a vertical climb that left him a few metres above the glass dome at the tail end. Shadow rectified himself in the air, and landed as silently as his namesake, his weight spread evenly across the fragile surface.

  
Scanning the area, Shadow almost had to groan at the sight of a row of defined windows around the dome's edge. He crawled spider-light to the nearest one and tested the sides. His fingers hooked around the protruding glass frame. The hedgehog had to swallow an incredulous laugh as he felt the pane move with minimal resistance, letting it swing up as he slipped his legs inside. The drop would have been daunting for anyone else, but Shadow stared into the dark, allowing details to reveal themselves to his augmented vision.

  
There was really no need to see his objective at this point, since its mere proximity made Shadow's fur stand on end, a pleasant shiver trickling down his back from an influx of Chaos energy. In response, a faint green light began to twinkle in the gloom, in resonance with one of its masters.

  
The descent was quick and quiet, and as Shadow stood before the glass encased plinth, he felt as if he were seeing a dear friend again.

  
“Old Green,” he purred, drawing his hand back. “It really has been too long.”

He was never going to get used to the headaches alarms caused, but it was a small inconvenience as Shadow plucked the Emerald out of the broken glass and ambled towards the front door. He tossed a casual glance towards a security camera that blipped its red bulb his way. After all, what use was this operation without documentation?

The door flew off its hinges and skidded across the museum court yard, a small figure in the dim threshold replacing his foot on the ground. Jim the security guard had smashed the red button in his kiosk as soon as he noticed the footage on his small television and ducked inside his meagre shelter. There was a steady drone overhead as a swarm of automated GUN Beetles arrived, their barrels blazing at the motionless intruder.

  
Jim blinked the sweat from his eyes and chanced a peek over the kiosk's window ledge. It was hard to make much out in the hail of bullets and strobing light, but the mere fact they were still firing was cause for alarm. With his left hand, Jim dialled the emergency support number and tightened his fingers around the pistol in his right. The line's dial tone was faint amidst the ruckus outside, but he pressed the phone to his ear, eyes glued to the scene as he waited for someone to pick up.

  
After what seemed like an eternity, a female voice greeted him, just as calm as Jim was not.

  
“This is the G.U.N. Support Department. What is your situation?”

  
“There's trouble at the Station Square Art and History Museum,” He hissed quickly, suddenly aware that the gunfire had escalated into a series of explosions, with the figure still ricocheting like a fiery phantom between the machines at unnatural speeds.

  
“The Emerald exhibit has been compromised. Your Beetles are getting annihilated, please send back up!”

  
There was a sound of typing on the line, earning a curse from Jim. His right hand shook as he strained to hear the voice, forced to shelter himself entirely behind the wall as wreckage was sent flying.

  
“Do you have a visual description of the suspect?”

The voice continued evenly. Jim wanted to snap the phone in half.

  
“Hell yes I do, Lady! That's why I need your help now!” The ground trembled as yet another Beetle exploded just two yards from Jim's hiding place.

  
“I saw him on camera, there's only one guy it could be. It's-"

  
The wall was ripped away behind his back, and Jim rounded, almost dropping his weapon. He trained the pistol on the creature in front of him.

  
“D-Don't move, Sonic!” He commanded with all the authority of a wet tissue. Sonic was stained black and orange by the fires behind him, and Jim's next words died in his throat as the hedgehog brought the emerald level with his eyes, their usual green gleam poisoned red.

  
“-is happening?” The voice crackled from the fallen phone. “I repeat, what is happening over there?”

  
Jim didn't dare move for it. Doubted he could even if he wanted to. It was only the three of them, now: Himself, Sonic and the gun.

  
Its barrel wavered as his index moved towards the trigger, but that was as far as Jim got. In half a heartbeat, the pistol had wrenched from his grip and pointed directly between his eyes. The cold metal on his forehead made Jim queasy, but the hedgehog's finger didn't move.

  
“I want you to remember this.” Sonic said, his voice lower than what the man had remembered from TV. “That I can take what I want, when I want, and nothing that you or anyone else can do will stop me.”

  
The phone was quiet now, but not dead. Jim suspected they were recording this, and that perhaps his own death would be on tape. He swallowed hard, his nose stinging.

  
“Please, Sonic... I have a wife, and a daughter: She's only _eleven_ -“ Jim's plea was cut short by a more pronounced press of the barrel to his forehead, silencing him as quiet tears ran down his cheeks.

  
“Stay out of my way, friend, and I won't have to be a widow maker today. I'm sick of playing nice with you ungrateful worms, so the squeaky clean Sonic you knew is going dirty.” With that, Sonic whipped Jim’s temple with the butt of the gun, and his world went dark.

 

* * *

 

Jim awoke to find himself in an oxygen mask, blinking up at paramedics bathed in the glow of embers. The sounds of a support squad filtered through his haze, barking orders about securing perimeters or something of the like.

  
Better late than never, he thought groggily, a flat giggle escaping him as he took another gulp of pure oxygenated bliss.

  
“Sir, can you hear us?” Said the medic, a young woman with cropped red hair. He smiled at her.

  
“You look like my little Francis... But bigger.” He mused fuzzily, becoming aware of the throb in his temple and the needle-like pain in his lungs as he coughed. The paramedic shone a light in his eyes as he partner readied a stretcher.

  
“Sir, you've inhaled a lot of smoke, but you're going to be ok. We have to check your head, too, so we're taking you to the hospital. Do you understand?”

  
The man made an affirmative noise that scratched at his throat. He became startled by the sudden eruption of bright blue and red lights, remembering who put him here. Jim sloppily grabbed the medic by her wrist, fearful.

  
“Sonic,” He rasped, his grip tightening. “He was here. He- He did-" Jim began to cough and couldn’t stop as the other medic came back with a stretcher. The girl tried to get Jim to lie flat.

  
“It'll be alright, Sir. Deep breaths, you can't get worked up right now.” She insisted, as her partner helped move and tie Jim to the stretcher, but he struggled on anyway.

  
“Sonic did this-" Jim wheezed, fighting for breath. “He's gone bad, y- You need to let- GUN know!” He finished, collapsing into a hacking fit. The medics got him up the ramp and into the ambulance, the siren’s wails fading away in the midnight breeze. Jim's words had not fallen on deaf ears, however, and come the next morning, a certain blue hedgehog's life would be thrown sharply into disarray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cookie to anyone who found the hidden stars in the baseball team! 
> 
> As always, a massive thank you for reading! I love to hear from you and enjoy every comment I read! Hopefully their won't be such a long wait next time. Xx 
> 
> (Illustrations by me)


	4. Hayfever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spring showers bring May Flowers, May flowers bring hayfever.... And a warrant for your arrest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buenos Dias, Cariño = Good Morning, SweetHeart.
> 
> Es un hermoso dia = It is a BEAUTIFUL morning.
> 
> (I don't speak spanish, I had to use Google translate and dictionary. Apologies for any mistakes.)

A sneeze roused Sonic from his nap on the roof of the Thorndyke mansion. Summer was here, which meant it was warm enough to sleep under the stars, even if they only appeared for a few hours each night, now.

 

Sonic loved this time of year, but with it came a deluge of rising pollen, which seemed to be the culprit that woke him. Rubbing at his nose, the hedgehog sat up and safely set his borrowed book aside, which until a few moments ago had rested heavily on his face.

 

The sun had begun its long journey across the August sky, and rumpled though he was, Sonic couldn't help but admire the beauty of it. The dawn always took its time, which he could respect despite his love of the fast lane. Another sneeze threatened to break the peace, but Sonic stifled it: He had heard once that sneezes were a sign that people were talking about you, however if this was true, his fame would ensure that he would be constantly buried under a mountain of handkerchiefs.

 

Whatever the reason, Sonic could feel his eyes start to itch as he stretched. Hefting the book -‘The Count of Montecristo'-, he stood and dropped into the loft through the open skylight. He had stayed up late to read, and although the writing style was dry, the story itself was getting good, even if it was a bit of a slog. It was an interesting idea to explore how much a good person might change in the name of revenge, and an exciting prison break could always get the adventurous hedgehog hooked.

Ella was usually bustling around the kitchen around this time, so now seemed as good a time as any to get some breakfast-

 

A brain rattling sneeze left Sonic's nose dripping.

 

... And maybe an antihistamine.

 

Sniffing, he set the thick volume down on the loft room's desk and traipsed down the kitchen, where loud humming could be heard. As expected, Ella had started her morning with the same energy she had at all times of day, and it would be a lie to say it wasn't infectious. Sonic took the time to straighten out his t shirt and attempted to smooth his stray spines down before he announced his presence: If there was something the house keeper couldn't stand, it was untidiness.

 

“Good morning, Ella!” Sonic said, grinning brightly despite the early hour.

 

Ella turned from her mixing bowl and offered him a smile in return. “ _Buenos Dias, Cariño_.”

 

Her voice rang out strongly across the pristine kitchen as Sonic hopped up to sit at the island. He had come to learn a little Spanish during his time here, thanks to his new friend, and after a moment answered:

 

“ _Es un_ hermoso _dia._ "

 

 

The woman made an impressed sound, setting a glass of orange juice in front of her little blue house guest.

 

“Ah, you've been practicing, I see.” Ella noted, and returned to her mixing bowl. “Your accent has improved a lot.”

 

Sonic shrugged and opened the neatly folded newspaper to his right. “Why do something if you don't try to get good at it?” He said as he vaguely acknowledged the High Pollen notice on the back page before opening up to the funnies.

 

It was normal to see a fat orange cat speaking in the panels but odd that his human companion was unable to understand him. Garfield, for all intents and purposes, resembled a Mobian, and should have been able to speak to John just fine. Of course, Sonic then remembered that cats didn't usually speak on Earth, and had to suspend his belief as he worked through the other comic strips.

He moved on to the horoscopes as the sweet smell of pancakes began to fill the air.

The whole astrology thing was another very strange concept to fathom. Between Tails' equation to convert the Mobian calendar to Earth's and Amy's mystical know-how, he'd learned that his birthday fell within ‘Cancer' territory. Sonic’s muzzle had wrinkled at the idea, since he'd never known a crab that  _wasn't_  a grump, not to mention their love for water seemed outright insane. Regardless, he pored over the little paragraph, his cheek in his hand.

 

“ ‘Today will bring a new challenge, so stay on your toes’,” He read under his breath, an incredulous brow raised.

 

“ ‘Beware of Gemini, as they could bring dark times for you. Your lucky colour is red-' Yadda yadda...” Sonic finished dismissively, folding the paper just as a tall stack of fluffy pancakes was placed before him, along with a butter dish and a jug of syrup. The hedgehog's mouth began to water, a curl of steam carrying the scent directly to his nostrils, potent even through the congestion.

 

“ _Muchas Gracias, Senorita._ ” He told Ella, with a saucy smile. The woman chuckled, blushing as she slapped Sonic lightly on the shoulder.

 

“You little rascal, I’m far too old to be a  _Senorita._ ” She giggled. Sonic merely grinned more widely and turned the charm up to eleven.

 

“Not from where I'm sitting, Ella. Thank you for breakfast.”

 

The woman continued to laugh softly as she turned back to her work. It was then that Sonic noticed the tiny white pill lying on top of his napkin, embossed with a ‘C' for cetirizine. He watched Ella's back with grateful warmth in his eyes. She really did take care of him.

 

* * *

 

 

He was about halfway done with the pancake stack when there was a thunderous knock on the front door. Sonic turned towards the sound, his mouth full around his frown. What sort of lunatic makes a delivery at 7 am?

 

Mr Tanaka ( _Tanaka San,_  Sonic had learned was his native title) approached the door. Even now, his suit was sharp, hair slick and spectacles smudge-free as his fingers grasped the door handle. A group of men in equally dark clothes, though lacking the sophistication of the butler, stood on the threshold. Tanaka, the picture of composure, inclined his head respectfully.

 

“Good Morning Gentlemen. What can I do for you?”

 

The visitors did not mirror Tanaka's soft tone, gruffly shoving a slip of paper in front of his face.

 

“We have an arrest warrant for Sonic the Hedgehog.” Said the officer, with a voice like an icicle. “We also have permission to enter the property, by force if necessary. Do not attempt to hide him from us.”

 

Sonic couldn't see the figures on the doorstep from his seat, but he heard them just fine. The food in his mouth turned to sand, and grew heavy in his stomach as he swallowed. Ella had also halted, her eyes like marbles as she glanced at her guest across the counter.

 

 

“I can assure you, I have no intention of impeding your investigation,” Tanaka said coolly, steel beneath his impeccable etiquette. “However, I must ask you  _why_  you believe Mister Sonic is guilty, and, more importantly,  _what_  he has supposedly done?”

 

Sonic, throughout the exchange, had grown more and more confused. Sure, he'd accidentally bashed a building or two in the past, but the President himself had already cleared him of that kind of collateral damage in the defence of this planet. His lips grew thin, unable to find a reason for his arrest otherwise, when a familiar voice sounded from the grand stairwell.

 

“Mr Tanaka, what's going on?”

 

Chris’ voice made Sonic's blood turn to ice as his padded into his line of sight and stood behind the Butler in his pyjamas. Mr Tanaka turned to his charge, his stance softened for a split second.

“Master Chris, there is just a small misunderstanding-"

 

“Hey! You can let us in, or we'll  _force_  our way in, four eyes!” Barked a second voice from beyond the threshold, though somehow it was more pleasant than the first. Before Sonic could get down from his seat, Ella was already storming across the kitchen, a skillet in her fist like the hammer of Thor. She stood in front of Tanaka, red in the face.

 

“What on  _Earth_  do you miserable little men think you're doing, talking like that, in front of a  _child_ , no less?” She scolded, wagging a finger with her spare hand. “What would your Mothers say if they knew you stomped around, bothering people at this hour and being so  _rude_  about it?”

 

The woman widened her stance, filling the doorway with her body and righteous fury.

 

“You should all be ashamed!”

 

Tanaka had escorted Chris to the kitchen during Ella's tirade, surprised to see the object of this little situation staring back at him. Chris was the first to speak, but he had the presence of mind to whisper.

 

“Hey, what's this all about? Those guys looked serious, and I think they might have  _guns."_

 

Sonic offered a helpless shrug and looked just as lost about this as Chris and Tanaka were.

 

“Beats me, buddy. I was just here stuffing my face and those goons show up unannounced. Unless I've been sleepwalking, something just doesn't add up.”

 

Chris looked more than a little nervous, but Sonic reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. The boy looked into his friend's eyes and found only truth there. Sonic answered with his signature smile and added a thumbs-up for good measure.

 

_Fake it till you make it, right?_

 

“Whatever the problem is, I promise we'll figure it out, Chris. This is probably just a misunderstanding, or one of Egghead's dumb schemes.”

 

Tanaka looked unsure, but he knew that Ella couldn't keep ranting forever. Sooner or later, the unwanted guests would come in, with or without force.

 

“Mister Sonic, we're here to support you however we can, but-“

 

The hedgehog raised his palm to halt the man's next words.

 

“I'm going to go with them. If it's a dumb ruse, I'll break out like always... If it's legit, then I don't want them coming in here.”

 

The unspoken concern for suspected firearms hung heavily over the trio, making Chris pale. By now, the commotion had pulled another from her bed. A voice like a cooing dove pulled Ella's focus to the staircase, where Cream stood in her nightdress, Cheese in her arms like a cuddly toy.

 

“Ella, I heard scary noises... Are you OK?” She squeaked behind the head of her chao. The housekeeper looked from her to the men outside, and finally through the kitchen doorway.

 

“It's alright, guys, I'm coming out: I just had to grab my jacket.” Sonic called, and appeared in front of the group outside, hands above his head. His windbreaker was particularly colourful today, rife with geometric patterns that resembled those found inside a kaleidoscope. A few people had dubbed him ‘The Fresh Prince' out on the street when he'd worn it before, so why not give these jerks the thrill of a Royal Escort?

 

He threw Cream a wink over his shoulder, just in time to see Amy and tails scurry down the staircase behind her: More reasons why he needed to leave, before things got ugly.

 

“Sonic, where are you going?” Amy cried, pulling the sash of her dressing gown tightly around her waist. Despite the compromised state, only a fool would think this girl was unarmed, especially with the frenzy she was beginning to whip herself into. Tails had stood by Cream, his arm around her as Ella retreated towards them.

 

Sonic knew his friends were in good hands regardless, even if it was their own.

 

“I've just got to clear up a few things with these  _fine officers_. I'll be back before dinner, promise.”

 

All semblance of friendliness left his face as he turned back to the men in front of him. It was no secret that the teenager had a problem with authority, but it was a whole other matter to bring that sort of threat to the home of his loved ones.

 

A pair of cuffs snapped over Sonic’s wrists and he found himself being led to a car with tinted windows. Royal escort, indeed.

 

Sonic sucked his teeth, waiting for the humans to climb into the back seat and cast them each a perishing look. He'd answer their questions, but if they thought they could hold him any longer than he was willing to sit, these chumps had another thing coming.

 

“Alright, boys. Let's make this quick. I'm sure you can appreciate that like I do.”

 

* * *

 

 

The car was only a short stint of their journey, Sonic found, as they drove maybe a total of three hundred yards to a helicopter, its rotors already in motion. The noise was deafening, and was thankfully muffled when a steel door slammed shut behind him in the aircraft's cabin.

 

Small mercies, he supposed.

 

In all seriousness, the change in venue actually unnerved Sonic somewhat: If he wanted to run away from a car or building, that was one thing, but a helicopter? The blue blur had a great many talents, but he had yet to master  _flight_  under normal circumstances. Sonic felt his belly lurch upon lift off, tapping his foot on the floor grate to bleed off his rising anxiety. His toe thrummed against the metal and a few soldiers began to glare at him. There had already been a crew on the copter, in addition to the officers that brought him here, but the rifles in their hands made the police pistols look like pea shooters.

 

One of the original group, the ‘Four-Eyes' guy, sat across from Sonic now, his arms folded as he looked down his nose at the hedgehog. It had been easy enough to identify his voice up close, but he had been unsurprised to see the person attached to it had no neck, piggy little eyes and a hair piece.

 

In his time here, Sonic had had more than a few stares, and while the attention was usually welcomed, the disdain in this brute's glare was not. He sat back now, reflecting the human's posture.

 

“You know, if you and your guys wanted an autograph so bad, you could have just  _asked-_ “ Sonic quipped, only to be cut off by cock of Four-Eye's half withdrawn gun.

 

“You think you're funny, don't you, freak?” He sneered, holstering his side arm again. “I never bought that you and your little alien friends came in peace, or any of that. Now I  _know_  it was all B.S.”

Through his disgust, Four-Eye managed to look triumphant. “Last night, you finally showed your true colours.”

 

“I don't know what rumours you've been hearing, Pal, but I promise that this healthy blue hue is one hundred percent natural.... Unlike that toupee of yours.”

 

The speed of Sonic's comeback could have only been matched by this feet, and the scorch mark left on Four-Eye’s ego was visible even to the team around him. A snicker of two could be heard from under visored helmets, and the man turned a blotchy purple.

 

“I've had about  _enough_  of your smart mouth!” He roared, his pistol once again making an appearance, aimed squarely at Sonic's chest. There was shouts from the surrounding soldiers and officers, that he couldn't discharge that thing in a pressurised cabin.

 

Sonic waited for the commotion to die down, eyes on the endless blue outside a porthole. The love of the colour stretched beyond his vanity, offering a snatch of freedom when a situation seemed far too dark to dwell on. It was easy to get lost in daydreams of mountain tops and plane rides and sanctuaries in the sky, so the hedgehog started a little when he was directly addressed again.

 

Another officer sat before him now, Four-Eye apparently cooling off further down the line. Whereas the first man was hot blooded, this one seemed very cold. His pale, angular face could have been made of marble for all it moved. This was the guy that gifted him his fetching bracelets, but also stated their possession of a warrant. Sonic had disliked him instantly.

 

“Mr Sonic,” He began, with the warmth of a dead fish. “We have reason to believe that you have committed grand larceny, and thus nullified your diplomatic immunity as a special guest in this country.”

 

The Warrant officer observed the bewilderment on the other's face and sighed inwardly.

 

“To put it simply, you’ve stolen something of great value, and we can charge you according to our rules, ‘hero’ or not.”

 

Given the accusations, Sonic seemed unshaken. He lifted his wrists to scratch at his nose before he spoke.

 

“Not sure how you guys do it here, but I'm pretty sure that you need, Oh I dunno ,  _proof_  that someone committed a crime before you sling them into a jail cell. Unless the Earth justice system doesn't believe in evidence before a conviction?”

 

The look of the officer's face said it all: People were usually a little surprised when they learned Sonic had picked up a book or two in his life. The human didn't remain still for long, though, producing a small tablet device from his pocket.

 

“You'll be pleased to know that we  _do_  have evidence for the crime in question. Both CCTV footage and a witness to wanton property damage, assault and battery, arson, and, of course, theft.”

 

Before he could argue, Sonic found himself staring at shadowy footage on the screen. He squinted at the video as the officer continued.

 

“A hedgehog was seen exiting the Station Square Art and History museum last night at around two-thirty AM.”

 

Sonic looked away from the screen, but cast the human a withering look. “Wow. First of all, racist. We don't all look the same, you know.”

 

The officer went on, undeterred.

 

“The suspect was approximately one hundred centimetres in height, male, and possessed incredible speed and strength.” It was the officer's turn to fix Sonic with a vitriolic gaze. “Sound familiar, at all?”

 

For once, Sonic had nothing to say, utterly quiet for a few moments. When he spoke next, his expression was tight. “What was taken?”

 

This human wasn't the smiling type, but they smirked with their eyes. “As if you don't already know. You forget that we were there to witness your Super Powered blonde dye jobs on two occasions, now.”

 

Sonic huffed, annoyed.

 

“On the off chance that I  _didn't_  just pull a heist, do you mind telling me anyway?”

 

Knowing he'd already won, the Officer pocketed the device and steepled his fingers, grey eyes unblinking. “Alright, Mr Sonic, I'll entertain your act. An Emerald was being exhibited at the museum, a very  _large_  emerald that we know you are already familiar with.”

 

An unnamed dread suddenly sat like an icy lump in Sonic's gut as the implication sunk in. As far as he knew, he was the only one who could utilise Chaos energy, excluding the strange relationship Knuckles had with the Master Emerald. The unease must have shown on his face, because the officer actually smirked.

 

“Is it coming back to you, or are you going to tell me you've got a  _twin_  that likes to pull elaborate pranks?”

 

Sonic snapped his head up, lips pursed. To think there was some other hedgehog with that ability didn't sit well with him at all, since that sort of power could be so easily abused, and had been already. The sooner he could resolve this, since he was the only one that could, the safer everyone would be.

 

“You have to let me go. If this is true, then this guy is gonna cause some serious trouble.” His hands fisted in the stonewashed denim of his jeans. “This guy knows what he's got, and I'm only one on this planet that can catch him before he starts to reek Chaos.”

 

_Literally and metaphorically._

 

If Sonic was fishing for an ounce of cooperation, he was dipping into barren waters. The officer scoffed lightly and cocked his head.

 

“You don't honestly think we're that dim, do you?”

 

Sonic eyed his passive face incredulously.

 

“I do if you don't let me go and handle this quickly. You're really shooting yourselves in the foot, here.”

 

All amusement drained from the human's face as he rested pointedly on the end of his newly acquired rifle. A cold wash returned to his gaze.

 

“If you try and leave before we bring you in for questioning, then I'm afraid it won't be  _us_  with a bullet in our feet. Be smart, Mr Sonic. If you confess, then the powers that be might decide to show a little leniency.”

 

_Oh. Oh this guy did not just-_

 

Sonic bit his lip and drew a deep breath. If there was something he couldn't tolerate, it was a threat to his livelihood. Being locked up was one thing, but any damage to his legs was another. He hid behind his eyelids for a moment to collect himself. When he opened them again, a dangerous, acidic gleam flitted across his glare.

 

“I really did try to make this easy for you guys. But if you insist on making me work for it, I'll put my shoulder to the grind stone.”

 

Before the officer even had time to lift his gun, Sonic had leapt up and wrapped his fingers around a fabric support loop, swung forward and clocked him in the face with his unrestrained feet. The man slumped back and a ring of keys glistened on his belt.

 

By now, the helicopter's other passengers had taken notice, raising their weapons before hesitating for a second in the enclosed space.

 

That was all the time he needed.

 

Without further ado, Sonic span into his would-be captors, his feet a blur as they planted themselves into stomachs and bounced off of chests with the occasional crunch of Kevlar. A few beats later, Sonic observed the groaning heap of his handiwork, turning towards the warrant officer to pluck up his keys. They would all be fine, but sore and sorry for not thinking to bind his  _ankles._

 

As he clicked open the cuffs on his wrists, Sonic noticed a few men begin to push themselves up, with Four-Eye looking particularly livid. He was fast, but he didn't want the craft exploding thanks to a stray bullet. Just as Four-Eye levelled his pistol, Sonic had already dashed over to the hatch and wrenched a red lever. All at once, wind screamed in through the open door way. Thankfully, each human had managed to grab onto something to avoid being swept away, but Sonic wasn't so lucky.

 

His fingers caught the edge of the open hatch just in time, his body waving like a flying flag outside the helicopter. He hadn't really thought this one through.

 

Squinting against the cloudless sky, Sonic had seconds to observe his surroundings. Thankfully, they weren't  _that_  high up, but a straight up drop would most certainly break his bones, even robust as they were. Meeting the ground at an angle might work, though.

 

Sonic's fingers began to complain against the strain, and his gloves only offered a little more grip...There was nothing for it, then.

 

Taking a breath, Sonic let go of the door, only to drive his heel into a piece of metal sheeting on one of the copter's back stabilisers. A narrow strip loosened under the blow, and he grabbed it before it could spin out of reach.

 

Of course, this now meant the Hedgehog was spinning through the air himself, with only moments to correct his orientation. By some miracle, he managed to plant his feet against the makeshift board and slice through air, pulling the nose up to match the incline of the quickly approaching street.

 

It was make or break time. If he was even slightly off, chances were that he could end up just as mangled as he would before this hair-brained scheme began. Tightening his jaw (So as not to bite his tongue upon impact), Sonic braced himself as the board finally met the concrete.

 

Sparks flew, metal screeched and there certainly going to be some explaining to do to city planning, but Sonic was remarkably unscathed as he shrieked down the steep hill. He grinned.

 

The blue blur hopped and managed to use a guard rail to grind, allowing him just enough to time to jump again at the end, take the board from under his feet and skid on his soles to stop. Continuing longer than he had to on that death trap was not wise, even if a nearby kid shouted his appreciation for Sonic's ‘Sick Ollie.’.

 

He pushed the dented metal strip into the kid's arms as a souvenir, winked and dashed away under the power of his own, blessedly whole feet. He’d caught a break there, but Sonic knew that humans were nothing if not persistent. They'd be after him once the news of his escape was out, but at least he could do his own legwork and find out who the real culprit was before then.

 

He didn't look back as he cleared fences, ran through gardens and eventually made it to a peaceful park. It was beautiful, with clean white flagstones, a pristine playground, manicured lawns and immaculate flower beds. He took a deep breath, felt a tickle and sneezed. Wiping the water from his eyes, Sonic pushed up his sleeves and bolted along the paths, searching for a place he could catch a breath.

 

A few drone-like robots buzzed over head with gatling guns fixed to their undercarriages, and Sonic had to buzz through an eight foot remote mech he'd encountered on his quest for a hiding place before it could fill him with lead.

 

At long last, he happened upon an empty road: No mechs, no drones, no people. Rubbing his temples, Sonic strolled down the sidewalk, shaded by the trees.

 

He could think at last, but strangely his first thoughts went to the abundance of robots the humans had whipped up. When he’d first arrived on this planet, the natives didn't possess such technology as far as he could see. But ever since Egghead had begun leaving his mechanical carcasses around, it was likely that this World's scientists had begun to tinker.

Somehow, it was always ended up being that psychopath's fault. Sonic stopped at the junction, still, even though the crosswalk was open.

Then, there was his other predicament. It was unnerving to think that someone who looked enough like the Hero was pinning their crimes on him. What was worse was that this scumbag also had an idea of the kind of power their stolen treasure was capable of. There were plenty of valuable jewels in the affluent Station Square to steal, with better Re-Sale value, so what other explanation could there be for nabbing a Chaos Emerald?

 

Sonic's thoughts were rudely interrupted as an eighteen wheeler truck blind sided him from the left.

 

“...Seriously?”

 

A blaring horn was Sonic's unwanted answer as the truck careened down the hill at full speed. The thing was enormous and nearly filled both lanes of the street, bashing smaller vehicles to the pavement left and right. The hedgehog had already turned and ran, but couldn't keep the thought from his mind that these guys were complete hypocrites if one of the crimes they were supposedly chasing him down for was  _property damage_.

 

There was a clicking sound behind him, and Sonic paled as an automatic gun turret popped up from the roof. Its barrels began to spin, and the hedgehog barely had turn to pull a sharp right down the nearest side street. It smashed at the cornerstone of the nearest house as it turned and revved towards Sonic, headlights shattered and hood dented as the turret’s rounds continued to graze the fabric of his jeans and jacket while his ran.

 

A pale yellow summer dress caught Sonic's eye as he tore up the road, and a little girl perhaps six years of age dropped the ball she was holding, too shocked to scream. He gasped, dashed and wrapped her in his arms, tucking into a protective ball as bullets sliced in two against his hardened quills. The girl was crying, but unharmed as he rolled out and pushed her immediately into the alcove of a stoop. He bounced immediately off again to draw the turret's indiscriminate fire away, positively livid.

 

“You  _maniacs_!” He screamed over his shoulder. His spines hurt like the dickens where the bullets had split against him, as if a blunt wooden peg had been driven into his head... But the pain was vastly preferable to the blood of a child spilled on a senseless chase.

 

“Your beef is with  _me_.” Sonic growled, turning on his heel with a skid, now facing the truck head on. He never lost a game of Chicken and proceeded to peel out, each foot fall enough to crack cement beneath it. Anger was the fuel that pushed him on faster and harder and  _better_ -

 

Before the driver could blink, he found a blue shape kicking an Air Jordan through the windshield, a large dent in the hood from where their target had first landed. The soldiers inside covered their eyes against the spray of glass, when a thump on the roof drew their attention.

 

Sonic grabbed the barrel of the turret’s gun on its left side and began to run, twisting the device at such a speed that it came off its mount in a matter of seconds. The weapon was unceremoniously tossed into the street in front of the truck, glowing slightly at its base from the heat of friction. The soldiers sat, slack jawed and unsure of what had just happened when the hood took the full brunt of Sonic's weight upon it again. The hedgehog cast a corrosive look at the pair, cold and flat. They shrunk back in their seats, absolutely still until Sonic leapt down and rocketed away up the hill.

 

The driver turned to the gunman once the coast was clear, eyes wide.

“Should we call this in?”

“What do you think, Sherlock?”

 

* * *

 

 

Sonic scrubbed his face with his hands, frustrated and more than a little miserable. He expected this sort of disregard for bystanders from Eggman, but not from  _these_  humans. He'd found a loose man-hole cover and dropped into the sewer. Thanks to his allergies, the hedgehog couldn't smell much, but the area was chilly and dank. Sonic zipped up his jacket, jogging along the cement embankment as he thought.

 

Maybe the military was the same, no matter which planet you found yourself on. But then, there were always good people, too: Chris and the others proved  _that_ , at least.

 

Chewing his lip, Sonic tried to direct his attention to more practical matters. He was underground right now, which meant there were few signs, and a good chance he'd get lost. Therefore, his surest bet would be to keep going straight ahead, using as few turns as possible so he wouldn't end up circling back.

 

It was time to do what he did best: Sonic  _ran._

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

Sheilding his eyes from the sunlight, Shadow took the time to both digest his stolen donut, and the spectacle he'd just witnessed. It had been easy enough to avoid detection using his newly acquired Chaos Emerald, so he took upon himself to lift some refreshments and admire the results of his handiwork so far.

 

The custard donut and pink lemonade had been the perfect accompaniment to watching Sonic's daring acts of do against GUN's armoured truck. The food and the actions against his enemies had satisfied Shadow in a deep way as the blue hedgehog destroyed it in a matter of moments. And thankfully this time, he was  _dressed._

 

Sonic had also saved that little girl, which was... Unexpected.

 

Shadow had vanished again once Sonic had darted off the scene, and secluded himself under a densely vined pergola on a nearby roof garden. He snagged a nearby grape and chewed carefully.

 

The Ultimate Lifeform was technically able to abstain from eating for weeks, and even months at a time in a pinch, but what was the point of such a thing in the face of abundance? It was easy to see how inhabitants on this planet could grow fat, not that Shadow was able to: his metabolism saw to that.

Shadow rested his cheek in his hand. He would find Sonic this evening, after he had worn himself out avoiding capture for a day. A creeping feeling also trailed its fingers along the back of his neck as well, when the crying girl popped up in his mind again, unbidden. She really would have been shot if his blue counterpart hadn't protected her the way he did.

 

Shadow sucked the sweetness from his teeth.

 

Just more proof that GUN needed to suffer for their actions just as much now as they had all those years ago... Those missing years that still didn't feel real to Shadow.

 

Shadow's lips thinned as he huffed through his nose, arms barred over his knees. He watched the glass lemonade bottle perspire in front of him for a little while, each bead of water sparkling in the sun.

 

_If things were different, perhaps we could have been..._

 

Growling, Shadow shook his head before the thought could take hold. He had a job to do, a mission to complete, a  _goal to reach_. This wasn't the time to lose his nerve, and a single day of beautiful weather and pastries wasn't going to change his mind. Sonic was obviously a very strong opponent, and had the potential to ruin his plans.

He drove the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, pushing to supress the pain he was feeling behind them. They needed to pay, all of them: A few good deeds weren't enough to avoid the judgement he'd deliver, that much was for sure. His thigh itched, and he scratched at it absently.

 

Even if it wasn't what she'd asked for, Shadow would make sure that justice was served, one way or another. He felt the Emerald pulse in his pocket, its power seeping into every pore, bolstering him by the hour. He still had time left to complete his tasks, and the weather really  _was_  nice. Resting against a trellis, Shadow allowed his eyes to close, arms wrapped around his stomach, warmed by the ambient Summer heat.

 

Before he knew it, sleep had taken him, and in a few hours he would be ready to put Sonic on his back and out of the picture for good.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sonic-centric chapters, in MY fic? It's more likely than you think! 
> 
> Had a lot of fun with this. I always found it very unusual that Canon Sonic doesn't react like a real person when bad things are happening to him, especially when his friends might be affected, so I thought I might embellish that haha. It is also apparently canon that this poor nature lover is allergic to pollen.
> 
> I also managed to release a chapter in time for Shadow's Birthday! (June 18 = Gemini WINK~~)
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, all your feed back is so precious to me so please let me know what you think, or even if you have a question, drop it below or ask on my blog shadowwithpants.tumblr.com. 
> 
> (Edited a few things)
> 
> Peace!
> 
> (Illustration by me.)


	5. The Sublimation of Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Precious metals can be reduced to vapour. Precious memories are made of sterner stuff.

“Are you sure about this, Shadow?”

 

The golden ring was released from a restless twiddle around its owner’s wrist, and an ear twitched in the direction of an uncertain voice. Shadow’s face was one of absolute confidence as he turned towards Maria.

“ _Sure_  I’m sure, angel cake.” He said breezily, ironing a thoughtful crease from his brow with a smile. Maria didn’t seem so convinced.

“Grandfather has never let me use the AGC before, so I don’t understand why he’d let me go inside now.”

Shadow studied the stiffness in his friend’s face, painted with a sickly chalkiness under the elevator halogens. He answered by widening his grin.

“I promise it’s fine. He gave me full authorisation to use it whenever I want to. He said that the more practice I have gaining tight control over my jets, the more Chaotic radiation I can vent and absorb, which will temper my body into a more efficient conductor and-"

A hand on the hedgehog’s shoulder interrupted his rambling.

“That’s great news, but it doesn’t mean that  _I_  have permission.” Maria said doubtfully. Shadow laid his dark fingers over hers and squeezed.

“Let’s think about it this way: I was born to look after you, and by rights that means you’re the safest  _whenever_  you’re with me.”

Although still a little pensive, the girl’s expression wasn’t quite so worried as Shadow continued.

“Plus, I seem to remember you saying that the pool was one of your favourite places to be. The AGC is just like that, without the cold water and chlorine that always makes your eyes itch. You’ll love it.”

Maria’s face lit up as she listened, much to her friend’s delight. Smoothing out her skating skirt, a careful smile curled her lip.

“Alright, Shadow. As long as you're with me, I’m sure it’ll all be fine.”

That was all Shadow needed to hear as he watched the last few lights flicker and dim across the floors they passed on their long descent. He heard a sigh and turned to Maria, who was trying to fix the ribbon wrapped around her pony tail.

 

“Here, let me.”

 

The hedgehog stood on tiptoe and reached for the satin ribbon. It was a well loved thing, carefully trimmed and preserved at the ends. Maria had said it was ‘sky blue’, an alien concept to Shadow himself as he briefly considered the colour wrapped around his finger. He pulled the ribbon taut and expertly formed a loop with the other side, feeding one half into the other to form the knot.

Shadow plumped the bow and evened out the tails until they neatly flanked either side of the golden pony. Perfect.

The elevator doors slid open with a tinny ‘ping’. Maria turned and grasped Shadow’s wrist, letting him lead the way as the lights buzzed on in their presence.  He could feel her fingers tighten a fraction when he guided them through the dull corridor until they reached a large hatch at the end. The wheel protruded, looking both heavy and stubborn, but Shadow casually unwound it with a flick of his spare hand.

The portal opened, leading them into a small chamber between the exit and the AGC.

Popping his neck, Shadow pulled the zipper on his white body warmer up to his collar, and let go of Maria’s hand turn and fix hers, too.

After all, the AGC could be cold on the inside, and the girl was delicate. He could feel her take deep breaths as he finished, his reaching hands lightly tapping her on the shoulders.

“Are you ready?”

A pause, then Maria nodded, a determined glint in her eye.

 

“Let’s do this.”

 

The door leading into the AGC wasn’t as tight as the bulkhead before it, but it did require a key code. Shadow punched it in, a small series of beeps sounding before a hydraulic ‘whoosh’ signalled they were in.

Maria took Shadow’s hand, his fingers laced through hers. He stepped off the ledge into an empty space.

 

And kept right on walking.

 

The Anti Gravity Chamber was the only one of its kind, to Shadow’s knowledge. While the ARK was mostly affected by the centrifugal mechanisms quietly working beneath each layer of the station’s structure, this portion had been isolated, left to the mercy of Space outside, creating a constant state of ‘zero gravity’.

While Shadow had been subjected to real Space before, in order to assist with repairs and other such things outside, it was convenient to have an area indoors where he didn’t have to suit up every time he wanted to train.

The jets at his feet activated, and the white-knuckle grip Maria had on her friend’s fingers increased, her sights set on the chamber’s floor. Carefully, the hedgehog turned them both, so it was impossible for her to see anything but the ceiling.

“Come on now, look at me.” Shadow cooed, Maria fretfully meeting his gaze. He smiled softly, earning a thin one in reply.

“I’ve got you, alright? I always have, and always will.”

It took a moment, but Maria began to breathe again, finally sure that she wasn’t going to fall. Only after a few lungfuls of air did the magic of the situation really begin to sink in. She gave a giddy little laugh, the weak smile melting into something truly bright.

“Shadow, this- This is incredible, we’re just… Floating!” Maria said, cheeks flushed with excitement. Shadow, inwardly ecstatic, managed to look smug.

“What did I tell you? You can always trust the Shadster to steer you right.”

“‘The Shadster’?” Maria snorted, raising a pale brow. The skin on Shadow’s muzzle warmed, even as he fought to appear cool.

“It’s my street name. You know, for when we go to Earth,” He explained, not quite meeting Maria’s gleeful eyes. “All the greats have them, so why shouldn’t we?”

A sour twist thinned his mouth.

“I can hardly go by ‘Project Shadow, Prototype Mark 2.0’, can I?”

Suddenly, Shadow’s right hand was empty, and Maria cupped the side of his face fondly.

“I don’t know about the Shadster, but you  _have_  a name,” She said. “It’s Shadow Robotnik, and even if no one on the ‘street’ knows it yet, you’re my little brother.”

Leaning into the touch, Shadow regarded their interwoven fingers. Hers, thin and white, with shell-pink nail beds… His own, dense with dark fur and sharp at the tips. His sigh was imperceptible, but that was for the best.

“I sure am,” He agreed “But ‘Shadster’ is still on the table. Besides, you’re going to be Maria ‘Twinkie cheeks’ Robotnik.”

Gasping, Maria took her hand away from Shadow’s cheek and slapped him on the arm as her ears turned red.

“I do  _not_  stuff my face with Twinkies!”

Shadow made a sceptical noise, feeding his jets to pull them into a lazy somersault.

“Our memories from the last Movie Night must be vastly different then, because-"

“-You’ve made your point.”

Maria stretched out her legs to catch the breeze of their movements, locks of hair pushed back from her face. She seemed to handle the effects of zero gravity well, but then people underestimated the sickly girl more often than not.

They simply floated in the quiet for a while, Shadow’s soles occasionally flaring and pushing them around the chamber, Maria’s face the picture of tranquillity. Eventually, she loosened her grip completely, drifting in place. Shadow watched as her expression shifted to one of focus, and she leaned back, flipping head over heels again and again.

Her laughter bounced off the walls, soon joined by the hedgehog who followed suit. He backed up and started to turn, instinctively curling in as he fed his shoes, sparking and roaring until his surroundings blurred.

“Gosh, Shadow, you look like a Catherine wheel!”

The jets cut out, allowing Shadow to slow to a stop. Maria had also stopped spinning by herself - an impressive feat- her eyes twinkling. The hedgehog blinked.

“What’s a Catherine wheel?”

“Oh, that’s right! You wouldn’t have seen one, yet,” Maria said, bringing her fist down into her open palm. “It’s a kind of firework. We obviously can’t have them on the ARK, but we can certainly get one when we go to Earth.”

Shadow frowned thoughtfully. He knew about fireworks and had seen them in movies, but didn’t they just explode?

Maria went on.

“Catherine wheels are really pretty: They’re all dark in the middle, and they have a little rocket on the outside that lets them spin in place with lots of gold sparks, just like you!”

She demonstrated by drawing rapid little circles in the air with her finger. Her friend glanced at his shoes, then back to her, unsure. The girl smiled again.

“One of the other reasons they’re my favourite is that they don’t blow up or make too much noise. They just have a really nice shushing sound, instead. I can’t wait to see one in person, again.”

A swell of affection rose in Shadow’s chest as he listened. Maria was one of the few people that appreciated his quieter nature, even if he seemed to talk around her the most. The laboratory staff deemed him distant, or even cold when they tried to speak to him, but then, they had usually stuck him with needles or subjected him to another form of unpleasantness.

Even amongst the friendlier civilians and the baseball team, he hardly ever started a conversation.

Plus, the icing on the cake was that Maria had essentially confirmed that Shadow was, in fact, her Favourite.

“I’d really like to see one, when we go down there.” He agreed, before turning a few more times with his jets to give her the effect once more, thinking.

Maria had taught him about a new thing today, so he should return the favour, but with what? Algebra and trigonometry were hardly the most exciting subjects to impress someone with. The Anti Gravity Chamber itself was a barren place, and telling the girl that she was actually  _falling_  through space was not great for instilling confidence.

He glanced over at Maria, who had tucked herself into a careful somersault. Her hair floated upwards in her ponytail, strands shining white in the light here and there, merging back into a golden cloud when she stopped.

“Hey, did you know that because gold can be melted, it can also become vapour?” Shadow said, propelling himself over to Maria. She fixed her blue, blue eyes on him and blinked.

“Really? I mean, it makes sense, but wouldn’t it need to be  _really_  hot?”

 

 _(25°C): 88.0±0.3 kcal/g-atom_ , Shadow thought vaguely.

 

“Yeah, you’d need twenty times the energy needed to boil water, trying to boil the same amount of gold.”

Maria’s mouth formed a wondrous ‘o’, her eyes shining with possibilities.

“So, you could make gold steam and then a gold rain cycle?” She asked, obviously entranced by the notion. Shadow didn’t want to burst her bubble, but-

“It’s… Difficult to sublimate gold. It’s very good at dispersing the heat needed to make it, uh, steam.”

The hedgehog folded his arms, perfectly level in the air as he perfected his buoyancy.

“Technically, it would most likely be vaporised using lasers, rather than just boiling it.”

To be honest, Shadow had expected Maria’s face to fall after the revelation that golden rain couldn’t be produced with a nuclear kettle, but the girl was rolling idly in the air with a dreamy expression.

“I always loved Venus, Shadow. The Earth is obviously my favourite, but Venus just looks like a beautiful bead in photos.” She said, sighing contentedly through her nose.

“Like a tiger eye, or a jasper. It was because of those golden clouds. Grandfather said they’re made from sulphuric acid and make it impossible to see the surface.”

Maria turned and met Shadow’s eyes. She reached out and gently hooked her fingers around the rings on his wrists, raising them just enough to let the skin beneath breathe.

“Even if it’s true, wouldn’t it be nicer to think that the planet is just covered with oceans of gold? Such a warm, rare metal just there, ready to make things so pretty and special.”

 

It wasn’t often that Shadow completely relaxed, but the freeing gesture made him seem to let go of a breath he'd been holding. 

With his friend happy and safe, floating care-free inside this marvel of modern science, his shackles might as well have been vapour. Perhaps now his heart knew what it was to be completely weightless.

He nodded and opened his mouth to speak, only to find the sound had holes in it. Each time he blinked, colour and form faded, until even Maria’s radiant smile was a murky smudge.

Shadow opened his eyes a final time, only to find everything in complete darkness. Eventually, a dingy wash broke up the black, like the first rays of an overcast dawn. He felt pressure behind his eyes and tried to blink away the discomfort until the ground dropped out from beneath him with blue lightning.

 

* * *

 

“...”

  
A vision of gold and white dispersed like smoke, and red eyes slowly opened. A second spike of chaotic energy quickly sobered Shadow, approximately three miles from his current position. He sat up with a grunt and frowned.   
  
“... Another Emerald?” He breathed, calibrating his senses to whittle down the location.

The concentration wasn't quite high enough to be an Chaos Emerald itself, and even more unusually, it kept moving. Shadow’s brow creased as he pulled his focus tighter, hands flexing as if they itched to capture the source.  
  
Suddenly, that same blue. Shadow could practically feel the wind on his cheek as he felt the container for this chaotic energy tug at his own stores.

 

_It’s… Him?_

 

The colour faded back to black, the dark hedgehog standing at last. He strolled over to the roof's ledge and climbed up, using his body as a compass.  Once he had pinpointed his next location, Shadow grasped the Chaos Emerald in his pocket-  
  
Only to pause.   
  
So this Sonic character was a user, too. There was no mistaking what he'd felt, the energy wrapped the speedster's form so densely that he could have almost reached out and wrapped his fingers around it. Shadow thought he had felt something earlier when the GUN truck got in its little fender bender, but perhaps Sonic wasn't quite relying so heavily on Chaos alone back then.

Hell, it was even possible that the other didn't even realise what he was even utilising right now.

  
While the energy was great, it felt untamed in the possession of such an amateur. It really was best to nip this in the bud now, since Sonic's potential power really gum things up in the right circumstances. Besides, it would be interesting to see how the Goody-Two-Shoes handled himself up close.

  
  
“...We'll see what you're made of, soon enough.” 

  
A flood of chaotic radiation crackled beneath black fur, and Shadow moved himself from the peaceful pergola garden to a vantage swathed in fiery flakes and rippling air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my friends, sorry for the delay! Have yourselves a little interlude before the first Sonic/ Shadow meeting! I like to imagine that there are some sweet memories from Shadow's life on the ARK, usually with Maria, and we'll be exploring those in the future.
> 
> This was hard to write but I hope it all makes sense to you guys.
> 
>  
> 
> Comments are always a pleasure to read and I hope you all have a great day. Xx
> 
> (Story and art by me, @shadowwithpants on tumblr.)


	6. Racing Strip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> G O.
> 
> S T O P.
> 
> (CW: Assault. Suggestive themes)

By the time Sonic popped the lid off the manhole cover and set a foot on the street, it was nighttime. He inhaled the world with his deprived lungs. The air tasted crisp and had a champagne fizz that came with the glow of street lamps. Besides, compared to the last few hours he'd spent in the sewer, this cool weekday evening was ambrosia.

_I might be able to get something done now._

He dusted off his clothes. G.U.N still used revolvers and old-school radio trackers, but damn it if they weren't persistent: Those strange, squat little gun drones had even been sent underground. Sonic had needed to deviate from his course in order to make sure a group of teenagers nearby didn't end up shot.

He had already seen how little regard GUN had for citizens. Even children were apparently dozed aside when they got in the way of a chase. What would happen to the forgotten…

He stopped that thought before it could fester.

Sonic stretched, vertebrae popping as he kneaded an eye with his knuckle. He’d run all day, and only had half of his breakfast, so hunger, as well as fatigue, was starting to set in. He couldn't stop now, though, and the night offered a little cover so he had to make it count.

The lights in the buildings were kaput with people tucked up in bed. Sonic counted his blessings and began to jog along the street, looking for a signpost. The mansion was on Woodland Acres, right? Once he could establish where he was, he could figure out where to go next.

So, Sonic rounded a corner.

And saw a bipedal mech had found  _him_.

Its searchlight blared, left him dazzled. The guns rose, and its barrels spun.

His shoulders sagged.

Then, he was off, he darted past a mailbox perforated by bullets where he stood seconds before. Thankfully, the mech was big but slow, and Sonic couldn't help but grin as he picked up speed, cutting the air around them until it had trouble staying on its feet.

“ _Big Foot has confronted the suspect on Ringly Strip-_ “ A radio crackled, only for a sneakered foot to shatter the cockpit. Eruptions volleyed from the Mech's shoulders, which Sonic rightfully thought to be rockets.

“Gotta do better than that, toaster face,” He quipped, somersaulting between their smoky paths. They tracked his movements, so there was only one thing for it. Sonic leapt, landed on the Mech's own head, and waited for the shrieking missiles to return.

 

* * *

 

 

It really  _was_  impressive, he admitted, as the shockwave sent a pleasant tingle through his back from where he sat. It took considerable bravery (Or stupidity) to wait for death to swing around for you a second time.

This ‘Sonic’ character was a fully drawn bow, always taut and ready to shoot wherever he was needed, lithe and light. Powerful in a way one couldn't quite put their finger on.

...The chaotic energy  _was_  what Shadow knew and could detect like a pin in a needle stack, but this signal, this  _being_  had evolved to become something utterly new around its source.

He took a slow, deep breath through his nose. Shadow released his lip from his teeth and readied a grin.

 _Showtime_.

 

* * *

 

 

The smoke and sparks made Sonic's nose itch as he stepped back from the charred remains of ‘Big Foot', glass fragments popping beneath his shoes. He wiped his brow on a jacket sleeve, then contemplated the smouldering scraps of metal. To think, he'd almost become Swiss Cheese--

“Well, this a pleasant surprise.”

Sonic whirled, his gaze snapping upwards to-- _who was that?_

“... The pictures don't do you justice, I have to say... we  _do_ look alike, don’t we?”

His blood turned to ice when a black mirror image smiled back, framed by rising embers against the ebony sky. Time slowed to a crawl as Sonic glared at the imposter, who was utterly relaxed from his perch on the lamp post.

In stark contrast to Sonic's own jazzy shirt, jeans and kaleidoscopic windbreaker, this other hedgehog's clothes were suspect to say the least: A grey jumpsuit, belt loops without a belt, emblazoned with a faded serial number. The look was all too familiar to a near-delinquent himself, but what caught Sonic’s stare were the bands of gold that shimmered around the stranger’s wrists and ankles.

A flash of pink skittered in the back of Sonic's mind, until movement set time in motion again.

With his legs crossed, the figure withdrew a fist-sized emerald from his pocket and balanced it on a fingertip.

Sonic forgot how to breathe. "The stolen Chaos Emerald."

The hero watched his counterpart spin the gem on his index, with the expertise of a globetrotter.

He finally saw red.

"So  _you're_ the dirty thief. I should have known. You're even in prison threads. Did you know how long I had to spend in a sewer today because of you, _p_ _unk?_ " 

The imposter cooed, "Hey now, Slick. Is that any way to speak to a kindred spirit?"

He tutted while pocketing the emerald once more.

Sonic's brows pinched together.  _Kindred spirit?_  He may have resembled him--body type, quill length, height--yet this guy couldn't have been more… alien. Bile burned in his throat, pushed by a nauseous, frantic heartbeat that strangled him.

Sonic clenched his fists until the knuckles whitened. "I'll call you what you are, and that's a lying criminal who's trying to stick a crime on me." 

The stranger casually stepped down from the lamp post, landing silently on the tarmac. Sonic's spines stood on end, as if he were dealing with a ghost. 

"For shame,  _Sonic_ , there's no need for insults is there? We're all civilized here…” He tapped his lip, “...however, I suppose I never introduced myself." 

Even though this person was so calm, alarms shrieked in Sonic’s head, hands twitching. His breath shook as he dropped into a fighting stance, fists guarding his face.

"My name is Shadow,” He offered, the picture of geniality, “And I already know all about you, champ." 

'Shadow' flashed a wink. Then …  _flickered_. Sonic blinked, he only--Gone? How was that even--

\---only for him to stand right before Sonic's nose.

Sonic just stumbled before a fist drove into his jaw. 

He went flying as his vision filled with blaring lights. He crashed into a newspaper dispenser, denting the metal case as its glass front burst.

This doesn’t make sense. How, why,  _how---_

Sonic stood, groaning as he clutched his head, a deep cut above his left eye gushing. He wiped at it with a sleeve to clear his view of blood, when his assailant vanished again. 

That’s when he was tugged by the collar, the pull yanking hard. His world flipped, he kissed the road, skull smashing into the unforgiving surface. 

Sonic's stomach hurled, especially when a blurry mass roughly rolled him onto his back. It settled on his middle, squeezing his neck tightly in one hand. 

"But I suppose that's unfair since you don't know anything about me," It pondered distantly, the pressure increasing around Sonic's throat with every passing second.His lungs burned as if he were trying to hold a chest full of glass dust. He just needed a  _single_  breath-

_-Not now. I can’t go yet. I’m not ready. Please, don’t--_

The shape sharpened, morphing back into Shadow. "It doesn't matter now, anyway.”

He glanced down at the prone figure beneath him. He tilted his head and inspected Sonic, pinching his chin with his spare hand. He turned the boy's face this way and that, his oxygen-starved cheeks as blue as his quills. 

"Hmm... I will say it's a shame to kill such a  _handsome_  fellow, though,"  Shadow smirked in some private way and relinquished the choke, colour returning to Sonic's face as he gave a raw gasp.

He tried to sit up, but Shadow's deceptive weight kept him in place, and he was soon dealt another sock to the jaw, putting him on his back again. 

"Don't get cute, now."

The words swam in Sonic's mind, which felt like it was going to cave in on itself any second.

Shadow continued. "You see, I've already served a life sentence for something I didn't do, so I'm not going back to that godforsaken island. But  _quid pro quo_  and all that,  _s_ _omeone_  has to take the heat for me. Like it or not, you're the lucky candidate."

Sonic gulped in precious air as his adversary got off his belly. No sooner was he then wrenched upwards and grabbed by the waist, suspended by Shadow, as if he were being dipped in a dance.

The former smirked, "Seems winning the genetic lottery isn't all it's cracked up to be." 

Sonic's mind cleared at a snail's pace, but quickly enough to register Shadow reeling back his fist.

Before his opponent could twitch, Sonic managed to regain the use of his legs. They buzzed with pins and needles, but he launched his sole into Shadow's stomach. He wheezed, which was substantial, wrenching away from Shadow's grip. 

Sonic dropped low, winding back his foot to punt his enemy in the chin.

Shadow flipped backward, sailing through the air before he slammed against a stop sign. There was a second of silence, aside from the metallic clang, where he merely stuck to it, before he peeled away from the dented metal surface. Spluttering, he pushed himself to a knee, dry heaving and breathless. He shook his head, red flakes of paint floating to the ground.

"Not such a great feeling, is it?" Sonic seethed as he steadied himself, blinking away the black spots in his vision. 

Shadow’s bloodshot glare would have turned him to mincemeat. Sonic grinned regardless as he peeled out. 

"I'll take your place," He called, hurtling away from his attacker,  _"If you can catch me!"_

Sonic upped the gear and barely felt the street below him anymore.

He had to get back to the Mansion where he could rest, talk things out with the police, and perhaps Mr. President himself if needed. It was crucial that they knew about this Shadow person, that he was just being  _framed_.

The only thing that mattered was getting away from that maniac, and even when injured, he always had speed on his side. 

Or so he’d thought. 

No sooner had he allowed himself to feel relief, a thunderclap erupted behind him. Sonic risked a glance over his shoulder. 

Arrows of light whizzed past his head, crackling like lightning as he stumbled away from them. One managed to graze him on the bicep when it streaked by, filling his nostrils with the scent of burning fabric, fur, and flesh. He hissed sharply through his teeth, swallowing a curse as he pushed his run into a sprint. 

The city street melted around him, carved into a blurry tunnel as the wind shrieked in his ears. Every part of his body burned, itching with sweat, solely set on putting one foot in front of the other. 

A finger lightly tapped him on the shoulder. His blood turned to ice.

“One good turn.”

Sonic only caught Shadow giving him an almost serene wave, his feet seemingly enveloped in  _fire._  And that was before he backhanded the hero down the road.

His velocity sent Sonic crashing mercilessly down the street. He tumbled, helpless to stop himself as the concrete turned to glass paper, scraping portions of him raw until he eventually sprawled to a halt. 

Sonic couldn't move. He couldn’t, couldn’t-- _Damn._  He wheezed painfully, spitting grit.

The world pulsed in and out. He could only make out  _his_ glowing soles,  _his_ footsteps,  _his_ breathing.

Sonic barely had the strength to blink, but he met his enemy's eye blearily.

Shadow was unreadable as he matched the look for a beat. His face was impassive as he yanked off his battered work gloves. He dropped them to the ground and began to unbutton his grey jumpsuit, shrugging off the sleeves with a liquid roll of his shoulders. 

Even as he tried to cling to the beacon of sallow street lights, he couldn’t  _see._  He faintly registered his jacket being ripped off, skinned elbows stinging as the fabric scraped at the tender flesh. Sonic moaned, his head shaking sluggishly as he tried to kick. All he got for his efforts was a weak little leg spasm.

An icy tingle down his spine sobered him enough to open his eyes when sharp fingers hooked into the waistband of his jeans. Shadow unbuttoned, wrenching them from his hips, making Sonic grow hot and nauseous all at once. The breeze made his legs tremble, jelly-like as he attempted to push his raw knees together. It was too little, too late as Shadow pulled the pants off past his ankles.

A new, crushing panic began to squeeze Sonic's heart inside his ribs. Not wearing clothes was normal for the male Mobian population, but being stripped like this by this malicious,  _stronger_ entity made Sonic feel truly naked. His eyes prickled as he tried again to awaken his sleeping limbs.

The black hedgehog was already nude; the lines of his body were lean until a bloom of fluffy hair on his chest broke up the ebony of his torso. The fluorescent street lamps cast every Shadow’s contour as hestretched over Sonic, a laser-like focus in his irises. 

A shameful, alien heat rose in Sonic's face as Shadow straddled his hips, the smell of musk and gunpowder as coal dark fingers pinched the hem of his t-shirt. They were frigid to the touch as they skimmed over his stomach, earning a quiver.

Shadow began to peel the fabric upwards, along Sonic's burning back and his pounding chest, the sweat chilling instantly in the open air. Sonic prayed that Shadow couldn't feel him tremble.

"...Don't."

His voice was as weak as water. Shadow paused and gave Sonic a confused look before he yanked the shirt up and over his head. 

As the blue hedgehog divested against the tarmac, his assailant glanced down at Sonic's bare stomach and cocked his head thoughtfully. Shadow's weight was immovable across Sonic's bruised hips, when a curious hand traced the faint seam of his abdominal muscle.

Whereas his breath had only quickened until now, Sonic outright gasped when Shadow’s fingers travelled downwards and began to explore his navel. A claw circled the scar’s raised edge before it dipped gently into the hollow.

“Huh... fancy that,” Shadow laid a hand over his own stomach in reflection, “You really do have something I don't.”

Unconsciousness almost lunged for Sonic’s vision, but with a feverishly fast pulse and burning cheeks, he wished it finally would.

 

Then,  _nothing._

 

For how long, he couldn't say, but when he opened his eyes again, he found himself being handled with the ease of a rag doll, stuffed into a pair of baggy grey pant legs. 

His cranium screamed, his eyes watering in the light. He swallowed the corrosive bitterness in his throat and tried to make sense of his situation. 

Shadow grabbed Sonic's wrist and fed his arm through the sleeve of the prison jumpsuit. 

"What are you...?" Sonic muttered, when he noticed that Shadow was wearing a familiar jacket. In fact, the fugitive wore  _his own clothes_ , ripped and bloodied though they were. 

"Fortunately for us, we're the same size," Shadow murmured in a conversational tone, threading Sonic's arm through the other sleeve, only to quickly pull both hands behind his back.

The cold brush of metal around his wrists sobered Sonic, and the ratchet click of handcuffs closing made his mouth sour. He tried to kick again, but a similar restraint already held his ankles together. 

Sonic was dropped unceremoniously onto his backside, while Shadow circled around and dropped to a knee in front of him. 

"You have to understand that none of this is really personal," he smiled with an almost sympathetic lilt, "But circumstances aren't always fair in life, and we do what we must to achieve our goals. They're looking for a fugitive in this getup, with my stature. So, I'm going to let them find one." 

Shadow fastened while he rambled, carefully snapping the buttons of the jumpsuit together up to the neck. He met Sonic's acidic glare. Shadow playfully slapped his scapegoat's grazed cheek, earning a snarl.

"And you? Well, let's hope they have a reservation in solitary," he laughed, "A dainty little thing like you wouldn't last five minutes on Prison Island, otherwise." 

 "You’re … you’re not… " Sonic grunted,pain scoring creases into his forehead.

Shadow sighed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, chief."

Sirens wailed in the distance and loomed ever closer.

The mirror image grabbed the Chaos Emerald from his pocket, the gem flaring to life.

“Besides, a few days are a blink compared to a fifty year stint. If you're lucky they'll put you on ice, and it'll be over before you know it.”

And then Shadow vanished like his namesake into the night once more.

Sonic struggled against his cuffs, but ended up on his side instead. He huffed, his breaths tasting of dust and cement.

At least the undignified break allowed his head to clear a bit. As clear as it could be when his own blood dirtied the roads he had protected.

 

"Sonic!" 

The latter lulled his head towards the familiar voice, to see Chris' anxious face through the windshield of Chuck's car.

They screeched to a stop, and the boy leapt from the passenger side to his friend’s.

"What happened to you?" Chris asked breathlessly, pulling the Mobian back up to sit. “You look  _awful_.”

Sonic, blinking away the head rush, eventually gave the human a wan smile and indicated to himself with a nod. Chris pressed the release catch on his cuffs, and Sonic started to rub wrists absently.

“I guess I do, but that's just how adventures go...” He gulped, “H-how did you guys find me, anyway? I've been  _running_  all day.”

The boy’s thumb traced the blackened cut above Sonic's eye, earning a wince. Chris bit his lip, then looked away to withdraw a handkerchief from his pocket.

He pressed it to the wound as he answered.“We, uh... we put a tracking chip in your shoe, in case we were ever in trouble andwe couldn't find you, or if you found yourself in danger and...”

Chris trailed off, gaze averted.

Sonic could understand, because how can you explain keeping tabs on someone behind their back without feeling like you were in the wrong? Given the circumstances, however, it had worked out for him in the long run.

“Hey, it's okay, buddy. You were just looking out for me.”

Sonic had been about to reach out and pat his friend's shoulder when he noticed that he wore the criminal's shabby work gloves instead of his own. Sonic's face burned with the realisation that Shadow had even stripped him of his gloves, seen and  _touched_ _his_   _bare_   _hands_.

Oh. Oh  _no_ -

“Here Chris, use these instead,” Chuck approached them now, his face grim as he opened a proper first aid kit. Sonic used the distraction to compose himself. As the humans sorted through their supplies, he walked through the situation carefully.

"I've been set up, and they'll think they have me dead to rights for stealing that Chaos Emerald in the news," He said slowly, hands wringing in his lap.

"We saw that footage, too, but couldn't believe it. I don't understand, Sonic. Who would-  _c_ _ould_ do this to you? I thought I saw someone with you, but he just...  _v_ _anished_!”

“The guy who was just here was the real thief,” He winced, “He's fast, like me. And _strong_.”

“I saw them, too. But that wasn't just speed,” Chuck shook his head.

Chris turned to his grandfather, and Sonic's head snapped up, too. The scientist looked as if he'd found out the main ingredient of soylent green, but passed an alcohol wipe and bandage to his grandson regardless.

“If he has the Emerald, then I hypothesise that it was teleportation: similar in technique to Sonic's abilities during his super state, but on a much smaller scale.”

A flash of memory lit Sonic's eyes, watering when the sting of alcohol was dabbed on his raw wound. “He  _does_ have the Chaos Emerald. But Chaos Control? It's not possible without seven...”

A grave notch appeared between Chuck's brows.

“It could be, if his body was a better conductor for their energy than yours.”

Chris’ fingers trembled, but he continued to clean the cut, before stemming it with a large band-aid.

Before Sonic could either thank or reassure him from the torrents of bad news, flashes of blue and red bathed the street. Their noise had become such a drone in his soupy state that their arrival was almost a surprise.

"This is the police!" screeched a tiny speaker from the top of a squad car, "Step away from the hedgehog, kid, he's a dangerous felon." 

More cars assembled in the road, forming a barricade. Chris bolted to his feet, sweat beading on his brow as he looked down the barrels of a dozen guns. He inhaled but stood his ground, arms spread wide in front of the hedgehog.

"You have it all wrong, guys!" He yelledover the racket of soldiers advancing. "Sonic would never steal, he's being framed. Please, you have to _listen-"_

There was a gentle touch on Chris' forearm, and the boy grew quiet, looking down at his companion. Sonic offered a shaky thumbs-up.

"Don't worry, it'll all be okay," He smiled once more, bright and strong this time,"We'll figure this out, but I'll have to do as they say for now." 

Chuck approached the pair and tugged Chris back by the shoulder. 

"I don't know what's going on, but it's not safe for you here," The latter stressed, leading his grandson back a few paces. 

“But Grandpa-"

“ _No buts,”_  Chuck warned. “Sonic is trusting us to find him a way out of this. We can't do that if we're locked up right alongside him.”

Even if the child’s smile died, Chris had to concede that his grandfather was right. Still, had had to watch, swallowing as Sonic meekly shielded his eyes against the harsh headlights.

A pair of soldiers with intimidating rifles accompanied an officer holding yet  _another_ pair of cuffs. Sonic glanced up at them, sighing as he took a few wobbly steps forward.

“Again...? I guess it's that kind of day, huh.”

Regardless, he held out his wrists to be bound. A stare bore into him from his right, and he looked into the blackened eye of the warrant officer from earlier. Refusing to be cowed, Sonic merely gave the soldier a cheery, limited salute, before he was pushed into the back of an armoured transport. There were shouts outside, until the door eventually shut and he was afforded some quiet at last.

The engine rumbled. The air was stale and the jostling did nothing for ringing ears...

Even if this wasn't the best situation, Sonic decided to make the best of it and use his forced downtime to think. Without the need to blink away blood or literally running for his life, it was possible to process what had happened... Most of it, anyway.

In lieu of other things, the hedgehog plucked a strange little titbit from his memory.

Shadow had said he'd been in for a ‘fifty year stint'. Either that was melodrama, or something really was unnatural about his new enemy.

The power of Chaos by its nature could have bizarre effects on living things, Knuckles had once said, it could restructure or destroy those that tried to harness it. More often than not, it was the latter, but the former... Well, Sonic knew precisely what Chaos could do to  _himself_.

 

Perhaps he could ask Ol' Knucklehead about this when he got out of containment. The officers had been somewhat garbled in their chatter, but Sonic  _did_  hear the phrase ‘Prison Island' thrown around.

 

 _Maybe this_ _isn’t_ _going to be such a useless waste of time, after all._

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW THIS IS LONG OVERDUE. Thank you for being patient, this was very difficult to write and illustrate haha;; 
> 
> Shadow's behaviour could all seem very, uh, risqué, if you assume he was a normal person with a normal upbringing. Which is isn't and wasn't. 
> 
> (Also, the word 'Cute' had some different connotations in the 50s. See: Rebel without a Cause.)
> 
> RAMBLE OVER. 
> 
> A huuuuuuge thank you to my adopted fandom child, @tekina_fiction for helping me beta and refine this mess. I couldn't have done it without them.
> 
> And thank all of you for reading and being patient! Your comments and feedback are golden. Until next time! Xx


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